


Monsters and Mana and Mania

by Ember_x_Mystery



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Art and pictures!, Asexual and Demiromantic Shiro, College AU, D&D, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith, Gay Shiro, Lots of jokes and memes, M/M, Multi, OC Shiro - Freeform, OCs with Cancer, Pan Hunk, Shatt, THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE SEASON SEVEN, bi allura, bi lance, gay Matt, gay coran, klance, nonbinary pidge, overall Lighthearted., real world AU, slowburn, they/them pronouns for Pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-06-24 15:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 41,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15633696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ember_x_Mystery/pseuds/Ember_x_Mystery
Summary: Shiro forces Keith to come to his D&D group to try it out once but Keith is against the idea.Alternating PoVs with lots of focus on other characters. Not entirely about the ships.Light-hearted story about friends in college relaxing, living, and (accidentally) falling in love.With D&D thrown in.





	1. The Cult of Conniving Geeks

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and greetings to anyone reading this.  
> Let me say first, YES this has Shatt. Before you close the tab, I wrote this before Shiro was confirmed Gay with Adam. I wrote this chapter and I already have about five more chapters this length written. However, doing art and writing takes a while and I don't work linearly. So the other chapters happen later in the fic and won't be surfacing for a chapter or two. 
> 
> Next, I want to say that they are all aged up as follows.  
> Keith: Almost 21 but still 20  
> Lance: 20  
> Hunk: 20  
> Pidge: 18  
> Shiro: 27  
> Matt: 26-27  
> Allura: 22  
> Coran: Late forties early fifties. 
> 
> Third: This is a lighthearted fun fic, but it does deal with serious issues. This chapter is pretty fluffy/funny besides a couple slight internalized homophobia thoughts Matt has, but they are towards himself and Pidge helps him. However, there are later chapters that get pretty dark and if you've read any of my other work then... yeah. You know I do both fluff and angst. 
> 
> A lot of stuff is similar to canon. Aka: Alfor died. Krolia is Keith's mom. Etc. But things have been changed for this AU. Also, Adam will not be appearing because I didn't know he existed and I've already written a pretty funny Shatt chapter. Either way, it isn't that long and the characters are pretty cute. 
> 
> Finally, and then you can start reading :) : I do not play D&D but my friends do and I help them often and they helped me write this fic. So I'm hoping I got everything right but please comment if something is off. I also do not Fence but it seemed like something Keith would do. Same thing as the D&D, if you fence and I got something wrong, please leave a nice comment and I'll fix it. 
> 
> This is T 100% for language and some trigger warnings later (But I'll warn you guys if you stick with me). There will be no sex or smut or anything like that. At most, some allusions to dirtier thoughts.  
> (also tell me if the artwork isn't working. There should be two pictures.)
> 
> Enjoy!

Keith~

“Why am I even here?” Keith deadpanned as Shiro dragged his arm while they marched through the school hallway. 

“It will be good for you to socialize,” Shiro told him as he had a million times before. 

“I don’t want to join your geek group, though,” Keith said. He knew he was being childish but he really didn’t want to meet the eccentric people that Shiro always hung around. He had watched the ends of some of Shiro’s games and it seemed… weird.

“One time,” Shiro promised as they stopped in front of the door that led to Keith’s doom. 

“Shiro…” Keith tried one more time, “We are in  _ college _ .” 

“And you look up conspiracies all day,” Shiro said making that ‘You know I have a point here’ face. 

“At least  _ I _ know they’re real.”

“No,” Shiro shook his head. “They are really not.” 

“Mothman will hear about this,” Keith whispered under his breath. 

Shiro sighed and opened the door to lead Keith into the way too dark room. Keith blinked his eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the dimness only to have a cloth bag thrown over his head. “HEY!” he cried indignantly as he was shoved towards… something. Through the bag he could see small spots of orangish light but he couldn’t see anything else.  

“Do you, Keith Kogane, swear to join our valiant quest in order to secure the grand crystal Zelphor from the witch Ytrmir before she can use it to wipe out the elves? Do you swear to always—” 

“At least for today,” Keith heard Shiro’s voice interject.

“Yes,” the other voice continued. Keith was 85% sure it was Matt trying (and failing) to talk in a deep, gravelly, ominous voice. “To always, for today, protect your fellow comrades, even at the expense of your own life? Do you swear to abide by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons and to work with your fellowship to complete our quest and to not sabotage us?”

“Can you take this bag off of my head?” Keith asked. 

The bag was removed swiftly and Keith’s eyes adjusted to see Matt wearing a hooded robe while holding a book, illuminated by candles casting a dim light behind him. “Very dramatic,” Keith commented. He had met with Matt quite a few times when he and Shiro hung out together. From what Keith knew, they were both geeky and weird and had been friends for a while.

“Answer the affirmation to the swears, dumbass,” Pidge, always the sarcastic one, commented. They were also wearing a hooded robe and holding a large candle. 

“Fine, sure, yes. I agree,” Keith sighed just wishing that he could get through the next… what was it… four hours? Ugh.

“Come on,” Hunk said (also robed and holding a candle). “Put some more enthusiasm into it!” Keith had only met the big guy a handful of times but as far as he could tell Hunk was good natured and sweet and was one of those people who was warm and welcoming most of the time. 

“Whoo,” Keith said in the most monotone voice he could manage. 

“Ah, that’s good enough,” Shiro said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “He finally agreed to come so that’s good enough.”

“Yeah, after you made a deal with him and it was either this or blackmail photos,” Lance said with a smirk. “Personally, I was hoping for the second one.” Keith huffed and rolled his eyes. He had only seen Lance a couple of times, like Hunk. From what he knew, Lance was egotistical, talkative, and arrogant. Oh, and annoying. Very annoying. He was wearing his robe with the hood down, probably so his ‘elegantly styled’, short, mousy hair stayed perfect. His eyes, normally the color of a field of bluebonnets, shone like fire against a twilight sky because of his candle. 

“We’ll see how he does,” Allura said skeptically. Keith was always, always surprised that Allura was apart of the D&D group but she seemed pretty loyal to them despite being popular and well-known around campus. From what Keith knew, she was stubborn but usually pretty kind and a good student. 

“I love fresh new victims!” Coran said marching over to Keith and Shiro. “Let’s get started.” 

Keith remembered that Coran was the sponsor for their group. He was always a little odd but most students enjoyed him as a history teacher because of his eccentricities. Coran was always most notable for his ‘gorgeous’ mustache that he took so much pride in. Keith could very easily imagine him being good at creating the mythical worlds in D&D.

“What music am I putting on?” Pidge shouted from across the room. 

“Celtic music!” Hunk shouted in response. 

Everyone started to sit around a circular table that was decorated with papers, figurines, and dice. Keith immediately took a seat next to Shiro hoping that he would help him if— no,  _ when _ he was clueless. Matt was sitting next to Shiro, then came Coran, Allura, Pidge, Hunk, and finally Lance. Who was sitting next to Keith. Great. 

“So… what the hell am I doing?” Keith asked Shiro. 

“Okay, so first you need to make your character,” Shiro said. 

“I think you should be a druid,” Pidge suggested. 

“What’s… that?” Keith asked. 

“You get to be a magicky person who reigns ultimate control over the environment,” Pidge told him.

“Um. Okay. That does sound kind of cool.” 

“You need to have a race too,” Matt told him. 

“I think you should be an Elf,” Lance suggested slyly. “You know, with the pointy ears?”  

“Well,” Keith said, “I don’t want to do anything Lance suggests.” 

“Then be the opposite,” Allura said. “Be a dwarf.” 

Keith sighed, “Alright. I’ll be a drew…”

“Druid,” Pidge supplied. 

“A druid dwarf.” 

“Sounds good,” Shiro said. “Now we have to roll for your stats.” 

It took what felt like forever but finally Keith had rolled for all of his stats and was ready to start. 

“Fantastic!” Coran said. “Now I just have to find a way to incorporate you into the story. Right now the group is going through the fortress looking for a special key that will get them into the crypt they are trying to get to.”

“Coran!” Lance shorted, “I know how to incorporate him.” 

Lance stood and walked over to Coran and whispered into his ear. Keith watched as a mischievous light  entered Coran’s eyes. “That sounds wonderful!” he said. 

Lance sat back down and gave Keith a lopsided grin as they began to continue in their game. 

Keith watched and listened with apprehension as the team traveled through the fortress, bantering and joking with each other the whole way. He learned that Pidge, being a barbarian, was their muscle. Hunk, as a cleric, healed the group. Allura was their archer, attacking from far away. Shiro was more of the leader and would plan strategies and then would fight with mostly melee attacks. Lance, for some reason, was a bard though he kept trying to sneak through the area and save people with flashy poisons, though they usually failed. Matt was the one who was the real thief. He continually would pick locks and stab enemies in the back. He was also pretty good at saving the rest of the team, especially Shiro. 

Keith kept waiting to be put into the game but it never happened. He wasn’t exactly complaining, though. Finally, the group had reached the end of the fortress and retrieved the diamond key to be able to get into the crypt when Coran said, “There is one remaining door that is locked with a master lock, but you can hear faint rusting sounds from beyond the door.” 

“We need to pick the lock,” Lance said. 

“But it’s a master lock,” Pidge said, “You’d have to get a crazy high roll to be able to unlock that.”

“I can do it,” Matt said. “I’m feeling lucky.”

“There’s probably a monster beyond that door though,” Shiro said. 

“No, guys,” Lance said, winking at Coran and Keith, “You want to open  _ this  _ door.” 

“I’m rolling for it,” Matt declared. 

A moment later Matt called, “Yes! I got it. The door’s opened!” 

“And now, may I present…” Lance said gesturing to Coran. 

“You open the door to find a mostly empty room with a couple of empty dressers and a bed. Upon first appearance you think it is empty but then you notice a rustling behind the bed.” 

“Behind the bed!” Lance shouted with a laugh. 

“You walk behind the bed and see someone there.” 

“I think I know what’s happening,” Pidge said slyly. 

“Behind the bed you see a fair maiden who is short, probably a dwarf, but she has long hair that is cut shorter in the front to form a mullet. She is wearing a pink and red dress with a black lace shawl and she is glaring up at the group.”

“My, what a fair princess!” Lance said in a mock accent.

“It isn’t until she speaks,” Coran continued, “That you hear… a deeper voice. Everyone takes a closer look and realizes that the dwarf princess is actually… KEITH!”

There was an uproar at the table. Keith could do nothing but stare and blink in silence, too stunned for words. Pidge, Lance, Coran, and Matt were gauffawing with laughter. Hunk was wiping his eyes like he was crying. Allura was snickering into her hand, and Shiro looked like he was about ready to burst into laughter but was trying to hold it in for Keith. 

“Brilliant,” Lance was saying. “Absolutely brilliant.” He stared directly at Keith as he held out his hand, “My fair lady, may I help you get to your feet?” 

“Not on your life,” Keith said crossing his arms over his chest. 

“But Milady, your beauty can’t be ruined by—”

“By what?” Keith countered, “Standing myself?” 

Lance pretended to bow low, “I will always be by your side milady. I vouch to protect you forever and to always provide assistance when you need it.” 

“Wonderful!” Keith told him. “Now I have a slave to wait on me hand and foot!”

“That’s… not—” Lance tried. 

“Nope,” Keith said. “You said you would provide assistance whenever I needed it. That means that you have vouched to be my slave.” 

Lance had turned ghost white and the look of stupid shock on his face startled Keith into laughter. 

“Okay okay,” Coran said, quieting everyone, “So Keith, the dwarven princess stands up and you find that he is holding a knife towards everyone.” 

“I’m going to use persuasion,” Lance said. “I’m going to woo her.”

“Do  _ not _ ‘woo’ me,” Keith muttered. 

“Too late!” Lance said, “Coran, I got a 16 roll!” 

“Great! You want to take the dialogue for this one Lance?” Coran asked. 

“It would be my pleasure,” Lance said with a cocky grin on his face. He turned to Keith. “My fair lady Keith, it would be my absolute pleasure if you would accompany us on our valiant quest. I promise that I will protect thee, milady, and that thy beauty shall remain as stunning as the sun shining through the clouds with its magnificent rays of light.” 

Keith was ready to barf. How could he be  _ so  _ cheesy? And why did it kind of make Keith’s stomach twist. The way Lance’s very blue eyes shone in the overhead and candle light and the way he smiled slyly like he had a secret that only Keith knew made Keith want to… punch him. 

Keith turned towards Coran, “May I choose to stab him in the gut?”

“No,” Coran said. “He rolled high enough that his wooing works on you and you join the team.” 

“Dear lord. Do I have to?” Keith asked. “Couldn’t I… hide in a pit or something?” 

“Nope,” Matt said. “You said you would protect your team.” 

“You swore to,” Shiro added. 

“Yep, you have to join us,” Allura said. 

“Ugh.” Keith grumbled. “Fine. I’ll join.” 

“You could say it with more dramatics,” Pidge told him. 

“No thank you,” Keith replied, already ready for the remaining two and a half hours to be over. 

“Pidge is right,” Shiro told Keith. “You should try having more fun with this.” 

Keith had rolled his eyes and scoffed at the idea but as the hours passed, he found himself having more fun. Not that he would admit that. 

But, when they had first entered the crypt and Coran had started to get low to the table, using  a flashlight to cast dramatic lighting over his face as he used a deep voice to describe the crypt, everyone had started laughing. 

During one of their fights, Keith had looked at his skill sets and he had found a spell of sorts to grow vines and incapacitate his victim. That sounded cool so he did it but the way Coran described the vines made them sound like thin flower-covered stems instead of the hulking mass of thorny plant Keith had been imagining. 

Lance had started to call him flower-princess Keith for the next while. Keith had retorted that he could sing his victims to sleep with a lullaby as his strongest attack. 

Thankfully, Lance had shut up for a few minutes after that. 

They kept plunging deeper into the crypt and Keith found himself more and more lost in the story and having more fun. Shiro was able to stop explaining everything to him every two seconds once Keith started to get a hang of the game. 

He learned that Pidge liked to mess with the whole group. Matt tended to work closely with Shiro whenever he could. Lance was obnoxious but he was the best in towns because of his persuasion and sometimes he could get past guards pretty well. Shiro tended to lead the group and Allura was their backup fire. Hunk was their healer and now Keith could be their offensive magic. 

“We need to get more information,” Shiro said as they entered the town Arus. “We should head to the local tavern.” 

At the end of the crypt, they had gotten an Emerald Key that looked like the diamond one that lead to the crypt and Shiro wanted to ask around about it. 

“Yeah, we could share a couple of drinks together,” Matt said from the side. 

“Well, we should really work on getting information about where we can take this key to,” Shiro said. 

“But after that…” Matt said. 

Shiro smiled, “Maybe.” 

Keith didn’t understand why Matt wanted to get fantasy drinks but if the team had to act drunk then he could get on board with that. It would be funny. Besides, who doesn’t like to get drunk in a fantasy game? 

“You walk into the nearest tavern and see no one of any interest,” Coran told them. “There are a couple of rough swords for hire along the edge and a stray cat running around some of the tables, but otherwise the tavern is empty except for the man behind the counter.” 

“Can I pet the cat?” Lance asked. 

“No…” Coran replied. “It’s a cat. You have no need to—”

“But I want to.” 

“Let him pet the cat,” Hunk chimed in. “Otherwise he’ll be lamenting that he wasn’t able to pet the cat for the rest of the game.” 

“It is literally just a stray cat,” Keith commented. “It could have diseases or something.”

Lance huffed at him. “But it’s a cat!” He rolled and then declared that he was walking over and petting the cat. “And now the cat is my friend.” 

“The cat is not your friend,” Coran said. 

“But the cat  _ is _ my friend. His name is Kaltenecker and he is my friend,” Lance said defiantly.

“The cat’s name is now Kaltenecker,” Pidge cemented. “Awesome.” 

“There is no point in you befriending a cat,” Keith told Lance. 

“Kaltenecker is not just any cat. Kaltenecker is my friend. Kaltenecker will save our lives one day.” 

“Alright,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “Whatever you say.” 

“Can we go talk to the man behind the counter now?” Shiro asked. 

“I think maybe we should check out those swords-for-hire,” Allura suggested. “They could be assasins or bounty hunters, and could possibly assist us in our quest.” 

“Or they could just be swords-for-hire,” Coran said. “I’m with Shiro. Let’s go talk to the man behind the counter.” 

“Can I buy two drinks first?” Matt asked.

“Why only two?” Pidge asked, smirking. 

“Because I don’t have enough money for everyone on the team and I wanted to make Shiro act drunk.” 

“That’s fair,” Keith said. “I want to see Shiro acting drunk as well.” He knew that his brother had literally zero tolerance for alcohol. Keith swore that the smell of it got him drunk. Matt, on the other hand, was better at holding his own against the stuff.

Plus, Shiro had told him that they had made the alcohol in their game very potent so one drink could do a lot. 

“Please don’t,” Shiro said. 

“Guys,” Lance said, reaching into his bag. “I have two glasses of water in here.” He gave one to Matt and one to Shiro. “Drink up!”

Matt smiled at Shiro and Shiro glared at everyone. “I’m not acting drunk.” 

“Please!” Pidge asked. “It’s really funny! At least be tipsy!” 

“Could you at least see how fast you can chug the water?” Lance asked. 

“I’m not getting out of this one am I?” Shiro sighed. 

“Nope,” Matt grabbed his own drink and held it out to Shiro. “Cheers!” They clinked their glasses together and Matt shouted “Bottoms up!” before beginning to chug his water. 

“I would be so against this if that was anything other than water,” Hunk said. 

“Shiro would too,” Keith agreed as he watched his brother take large gulps of water. 

They finished at almost the exact same second and slammed their glasses down on the table with a thump. Shiro set his down slightly before Matt, but Keith could’ve sworn that Matt had finished drinking before Shiro. They both started coughing and pounding their chests to get the liquid down properly. 

“That was great,” Lance laughed as he grabbed the glasses back. 

“Matt, make Shiro do stuff like that all of the time,” Allura requested.  

“Yes please,” Pidge agreed as they stuffed their phone back into their bag. “I need more blackmail videos.” 

“Can we  _ now _ go and talk to the man at the counter,” Shiro asked a little out of breath. His voice still had a light tone though, so Keith knew he was having fun.

Everyone agreed and they sat at the counter. 

“A stunningly handsome man with long orange hair and a brilliant mustache answered you at the counter. He had well defined—” 

“Coran!” Pidge yelled, “We don’t CARE. Get on with the story.” 

They didn't sound as annoyed as they did amused. 

“Fine,” Coran huffed. “The gorgeous man asks you, ‘What can I do you folks for today?”’

“Lance,” Shiro said, “Do you want to take this one?” 

“It would be my pleasure!” he said with a swooping bow. Keith still couldn’t understand why he was so theatrical about the game.

“So, Mr. Bartender,” Lance said as he leaned on the table, looked at Coran, and played with his dice with one of his fingers. “We were wondering where we could get… information about where a special key might lead us.” 

Coran leaned forward on the table, glancing around suspiciously. “What kind of… information are you looking for?”

“We acquired a key that we want to know where it leads to.” 

“It’ll cost you for that kind of information,” Coran said, raising an eyebrow. 

Lance calmly picked up the dice, tossed them in the air and then let them fall onto the table. From Keith’s point of view, it didn’t look like Lance even glance at his roll but he must have. 

“I think you and I both know that it is best if you tell me this information.” 

Coran glared at Lance as though he were a real tavern-keeper about to be robbed of a good piece of information. 

“Three hundred silver pieces,” Coran said at last. 

“How about I give you this instead?” Lance suggested cooly as he pretended to pull the miniscule object he had in his inventory from his pocket and place it on the table. He showed the group that it was a moonstone gem.

“Alright,” Coran submitted, snatching the pretend gem off of the table. “Let me see this key.” 

Lance glanced behind him as though he were looking at those swords-for-hire that were behind him in the tavern. Then he pulled his cloak a little to open a pouch and pull out an emerald key. “Where might this lead us to?” 

Coran held out his hand. 

“No, you cannot hold it,” Lance told him defiantly. 

“Fine,” Coran said. “That particular little key leads you to the Emerald Catacombs in the Kral Zera section of the world.” 

“Mark it on our map,” Lance demanded with a tone that implies suggesting the idea. 

“Fine,” Coran mumbled again. 

“And don’t even  _ try  _ to think about any funny business,” Matt growled as he pretended to show the swords and daggers strapped to his belt. 

Coran widened his eyes in pretend fear and then handed the map to Lance. “Here you go. The place is marked to as close as I remember the location being.” 

Lance grinned at him and gave a quick two finger salute, “Thank you. It was a pleasure doing business with ya.” He turned towards Shiro. “Dad, are you proud of me?” 

Shiro rolled his eyes as he inhaled deeply through his nose. “That moonstone was worth 50 gold pieces but... sure.” 

“Son?” Pidge asked in offering to get Shiro to play along. 

He glared at them. “Fine,” he muttered. “Yes, son. I am proud of you.” 

Lance beamed. “Aw, thanks Dad! That’s all I ever wanted!” 

“As adorable as this Father-son bonding is,” Allura snickered, “It is six o’clock. We should probably wrap it up.” 

“No, wait,” Coran said. “You didn’t let me say my line!” 

Allura sighed. “Pretend I said nothing. Go ahead Coran.” 

Coran smiled, “And scene. Well, I think that’s enough for today. Everyone is doing great so far. Keith my boy, how are you feeling. Are you liking D&D? Yay or nay? You think you have what it takes to come back and continue?”

Keith didn’t know if he wanted to return. He hadn’t thought he would. He had figured that he would hate it but it was actually a lot of fun. Still… he didn’t know that he wanted to commit to anything. At least not yet. “Eh, I’ll think about it. It wasn’t too bad. The only part that I have to complain about is Lance.”

Lance grinned, wrapping his arm around Keith’s shoulder. “Oh, you just don’t like that I am so spectacularly amazing.” 

Keith snorted, “Yeah. Amazingly annoying.”

“Alright,” Pidge said. “I’m going to leave before this gets into a full blown argument. Matt you want to give Shiro a hug and then go?” 

Matt rolled his eyes and turned away from the group, walking towards the door without looking at Shiro. “Yeah, let’s go Pidge.” Keith wasn’t sure that Shiro had noticed.

“I’m going to head out too,” Allura said. 

“Lance?” Hunk asked. 

“Yeah, okay,” Lance said. “Let’s go.”

Everyone said their goodbyes and headed their separate ways home.  

On the way back, Shiro kept trying to talk to talk to Keith and ask him if he was interested in joining or talk to him about what he enjoyed. Keith either shut him down or answered with short and abrupt responses. As soon as they got home, Keith headed off to go do homework and study, but would likely procrastinate on both. 

 

~~~...

Shiro~

“Come on, Shiro!” Pidge was saying, “You have to talk to him.”

“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “Keith was a lot of fun to play with. I mean so are you… and everyone else. Keith would just be fun to add to the group dynamic.” 

Shiro’s friends/ D&D group at lunch had been trying to convince him to convince Keith to come back to D&D. They all wanted him to join, Shiro just wasn’t sure that pushing Keith would help any. 

“You know he wants to see more of my awesome bard skills,” Lance joked. 

“I really, really doubt that…” Hunk said. 

“I don’t want to force him into playing,” Shiro said, “If he doesn’t want to.” 

“I think he wants to, though,” Allura commented around the straw of her coffee cup. 

“Fine,” Shiro said. “I suppose that I could talk to him just after his fencing practice this afternoon.” 

Lance choked on the water he was drinking. “Fencing?” 

Shiro sighed. “Yes, as Keith put it, he gets to stab things.” 

“Mullet fences,” Lance whispered dreamily. 

“That is amazing,” Pidge added. 

“Is he any good?” Matt asked Shiro, his eyes staring into Shiro’s intently. Shiro could never really look away from Matt. His eyes just had so much wonder and curiosity in them. 

“Yeah,” Shiro shrugged. “When he wants to be. He gets pretty aggressive and ignores defense so sometimes it works really well and sometimes it fails him.” 

“What’s his rating?” Hunk asked.

“National level,” Shiro replied. 

“Niiice,” Pidge commented. 

“Can we all just show up to one of his matches?” Lance asked. “And… not tell him And just shout really loudly?” 

“Please yes,” Pidge smirked, nodding at Lance. 

“No guarantees on that one,” Shiro replied, “But I will talk to him today.” 

 

~~~...

Shiro wandered out to where Keith practiced his fencing and waited by the side fence until Keith noticed him. Under the netted masks and all-white uniforms, Shiro couldn’t tell which one of the group was Keith. 

Finally, he noticed Keith after watching a match between a tiny fencer who was quick and defensive and a fighter who was definitely aggressive and fast enough to be Keith. When the match was over, Shiro shouted to get Keith’s attention. Keith turned and then walked over towards Shiro, taking his helmet off in the process. He shook his hair to get it to puff back out to its normal clumps and tangles.

“Hey, Shiro.” Keith leaned his back against the fence and took a drink of the water bottle Shiro held out to him. “What do you want?”

“I am your brother,” Shiro ventured. “Can’t I just show up because I want to see how you’re doing?”

“What do you want, Shiro?” Keith inquired again, not even bothering to look at him. 

Shiro sighed inwardly. He wondered how this conversation was going to go. To him, it had seemed like Keith had had fun at the D&D meeting but… Keith was also stubborn and obnoxious when he was conned into doing something, even if he liked that something. 

“I wanted to know how you liked Yesterday.” Shiro questioned tentatively. 

Keith shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve done worse things with an afternoon.” 

“Fair enough,” Shiro said, falling quiet. 

He remained standing next to Keith without saying a word while Keith continued to drink water. 

Finally, Shiro decided he couldn’t take it. He was horrible at subtleties so he would just come outright and say it. “Keith,” he said earnestly. 

“Yeah?” Keith asked. 

“My friends and I really enjoyed having you be apart of our D&D group. We would really like it if you would come back and join.” There. He had laid everything out. Now he just needed to see how Keith would respond. 

“Shiro… I just don’t know.” Keith traced the hard netting of his mask, avoiding Shiro’s eyes. 

“Did you have fun yesterday?” Shiro asked, leaning against the fence, towards Keith with his hands clasped. 

“Sure, yeah, I guess?” Keith said doubtfully. 

“Then why don’t you join us and play?” Shiro suggested. “If you had fun then I see no reason to not—” 

“It’s more complicated than that,” Keith muttered.

“In what ways?” Shiro inquired. 

“I don’t know your friend group. I’m the ‘new’ one. I’m the joke that people can make fun of. And I don’t really know that I want to commit myself to some geek game with my brother and his friends.” Keith shrugged like it was no big deal but Shiro could see the tension in his shoulders as he held his breath.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Shiro’s head. “You know Allura right? Well she’s one of the most popular people on this whole campus. She has a popular boyfriend,” Shiro couldn’t help his voice souring at the idea of Lotor, “and yet she still plays with us. She is loyal and fiercely protective of our group and she loves playing. 

“Matt and I are both grad students and we still meet to play every chance we get. Pidge is always busy with their tech projects but they love D&D. Hunk could be spending time with his girlfriend, Shay, but he hangs out with us. And Shay is more than supportive of that, she just doesn’t really understand the game well enough to play, though we tried to get her to join once. Coran has always loved the game and he helped to be our sponsor when he learned that Pidge, Matt, and I played.”

“And what about Lance?” Keith joked. 

“I’m not entirely sure,” Shiro laughed. “He probably has something that he could be working on.” 

Keith rolled his eyes, “Yeah, like a three hour beauty routine.” 

“Probably,” Shiro smiled, “But my point is,” his voice dropped and he placed his hand reassuringly on Keith’s shoulder, “That all of us would prefer to play D&D over just doing our own thing. We are a family. And we want to adopt you.” 

Keith snorted with laughter. “ _ You _ already did adopt me.” 

“True, but that was more of my aunt’s decision than my own. But I did persuade her.”

“So will joining D&D give me that awkward ‘where do I sit’ feeling for the next several months—”

Shiro interjected, “Did you have that this time?” 

“I suppose not…” Keith replied, his tone still skeptical. 

“Then why don’t you come for another week?” Shiro suggested. “I really think that this could be really good for you. You need to get out and talk to people more.” He poked Keith’s side getting a squawk of protest from him. “You need to use those people skills that are so ever lacking.” 

“Ha. Ha” Keith deadpanned. 

“I’m serious!” Shiro cried through his grin. 

“Sure,” Keith replied sarcastically. “I’ll say that my social skills are lacking when you admit that Mothman is real.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “This is what I mean. You look up conspiracies all day. You need to do something else with your life.” 

Keith paused. “I’m not giving up on my mothman, because he is the love of my life and I would definitely marry him, but... I’ll think about it.  That’s it, though. I’m not agreeing yet.”

Shiro nodded. “Okay, I’ll take it.” 

“I gotta get back to practice,” Keith said, handing the water back to Shiro. 

“Okay,” he smiled. “Stab them all.” 

Keith turned around as he jogged away, his helmet under his arm, and he saluted Shiro with two fingers and a sly grin.

Shiro stayed to watch Keith get reprimanded by their coach, Kolivan. He stayed to watch Keith’s next match where he was aggressive and quick enough and good enough at dodging to completely dominate over his opponent. Shiro swore that Keith could jump backwards five feet in the air.

Keith always denied that he was all that good, despite the fact that he was quickly becoming one of Kolivan’s prized team members. 

Shiro was glad that Keith had something he could be passionate about that could get some of his nervous energy out, too. He never really did anything with his days so Shiro wanted him to find as many hobbies and passions as he could before it was too late and he didn’t know what to do with his life. 

That was mostly the reason why Shiro wanted Keith to join D&D so badly.

 

~~~...

Hunk~

“I just want to show the Mullethead how good I can be at fighting,” Lance persisted. “I mean, I only was able to show him a  _ sliver _ of my skills.”

“Yes, Lance,” Hunk sighed. “We’ve already been over this.” Hunk didn’t bother Looking at Lance. He was too busy taking notes as his teacher, Krolia, pointed at the projector screen to explain to them their lesson on World War I and how it affected the world afterwards. 

“I know!” Lance lamented, flopping backwards in his chair. His voice managed to sound whiney even in a whisper. “But…  _ Hunk _ . I didn’t get good fighting numbers. All of my rolls were complete shit! I need to prove to him that I can do better and how can I do that if he never shows up again?” 

“Just talk to him,” Hunk said tiredly. It was Friday. Lance had been talking about Keith joining their D&D group for the last two days. At least it was Friday. Tomorrow, he could go to his moms’ place and meet with Shay and eat yummy food and… everything would be amazing. 

“I can’t ‘just talk to him,’” Lance said like it was the most obvious fact in the world. “He and I are trying to do better than the other. I have to show that I can do better than him. Which makes us rivals. And rivals don’t ‘just talk to’ each other.” 

“Lance… D&D is a game where you work  _ together _ . We don’t want to have to clean up the damage if you two battle. That takes too much effort for a rivalry you just made up. Does Keith even know about this ‘rivalry’?” 

“You don’t just go up to your nemesis and say ‘Are you my nemesis?’” Lance replied coolly. “You have to wait until the tension grows and  _ BOOM.  _ Then you are arch enemies.” 

“ _ Shh,”  _ Hunk hissed. Krolia had looked their way. “And besides,” he told Lance in as quiet of a whisper as he could manage, “I don’t think that’s how nemesi work.”  _ It sounds more like how couples work _ . But Hunk decided not to share that thought. He didn’t want the whole room exploding from Lance’s outburst. 

“Nemesi?” Lance asked. “Is that the plural of nemesis?” 

“Yes, Lance,” Hunk sighed again. He glanced up at the screen right as Krolia changed it.  _ Shoot _ ! Hunk chastised himself for letting Lance distract him into forgetting to copy the notes down. 

Of course, Lance hadn’t been copying anything the entire time. He usually didn’t. He usually snuck into Hunk’s room while he slept and took pictures of Hunk’s notes, no matter how many different places he hid them. 

“I just think it would be a good idea for Mullet to join our group and learn to fear the great and magnificent Lancelot.” Lance pressed his hand to his chest and turned his head so he was getting the most overhead light to shine on his ‘perfect’ face. “Princess Keith’s gonna need a lot of saving after all.” 

Hunk snorted. He imagined Keith in that pink dress Coran had described being held in Lance’s arms while he wrapped his own around Lance’s neck. Wouldn’t that be a sight? 

Though… with Keith being shorter than Lance… Lance could probably pick him up. But Keith sure wouldn’t be looking at him like he had created the moon and stars. He would be glaring like Lance had stolen his favorite knife and was holding it hostage. 

And then Hunk imagined them riding off into the sunset together. But instead of Keith, the princess, sitting side saddle, Lance did and Keith steered the horse. 

That would be great. 

“Don’t you think Hunk?” Lance asked. 

“Hm?” Hunk said being drawn from his fantasy dreams, “Oh, yes. Saving. Probably. But he might also need to save you y’know. Plus, you are sort of his slave.” 

Lance’s expression soured. “I did  _ not  _ agree to that.” 

“What was it you had said? ‘I shall wait on you hand and foot milady’?” Hunk snorted. “Just admit that you talked yourself into slavery.” 

“Never,” Lance asserted. “I shall vanquish all mighty beasts before  _ he _ ever can.”

“What a great protector you are!” Hunk cried with false enthusiasm. 

“I— No— wait! That’s not what I mean!” Lance spluttered. 

“But as a slave isn’t that what you are supposed to do?” Hunk asked innocently. 

“No… I’m supposed to  _ best _ him in battles. Not do them for him…” Lance tried. 

“Dude,” Hunk smirked, “there is literally no way out of this where you win this argument.”

Lance huffed and sank back down into his chair. There were a few glorious seconds of silence where Hunk was able to take notes in peace before Lance started talking again. “I still want him back on the team though. We have to finish our quest through the land of Voltron  _ at least _ .” 

“Yes, yes,” Hunk said dismissively. “I agree. We’ll have to see what happens. Shiro said that he was iffy on it so we’ll just have to wait.” 

“What if you talked to him?” Lance asked. 

“It wouldn’t do much good,” Hunk shrugged, “He barely knows me. It would be better if Shiro or Matt were to talk to him. Or maybe Pidge. Pidge can be pretty convincing.”

“Oooh!” Lance sat up eagerly. “You’re right! I’ll work on recruiting them to go and recruit Keith!” 

“Alright, sure,” Hunk said, jotting down the final pages of notes as neatly as he could. 

“Yay!” Lance said, his voice rising in volume, “I can finally show Keith how spectacular I am!” 

“McClain,” Krolia said, turning to Lance at his risen voice. Hunk tried to look as inconspicuous as he could. Krolia marched over until she was two desks away from Lance’s. “Do you have something you would like to share with the whole class?”

“Um,” Lance said as he turned towards Krolia, an easy grin on his face and cocky lift to his eyebrow. “Not particularly.” 

Hunk glanced at Krolia. She had her arms crossed across her chest, a purple blouse and black slacks on and her pointing stick pointing downwards from her hand. Hunk noticed that her raven black hair was cut in a form like Keith’s mullet. It sort of struck Hunk how similar she looked to Keith. Maybe it was just the mullet and the similar grumpy expression on their faces. 

“Fine,” Krolia relented. “Just… pay attention. I know you don’t know anything about what I’ve been teaching today so I expect to be seeing you in my morning tutorials tomorrow.” 

Lance glared at the back of her head. “Alright Krolia. I will be there.”

“Good,” She said, her tone brightening. “Now, for the finale of our lesson...” 

“So… You’ll help me ask Pidge, right?” Lance hissed to Hunk. 

Hunk sighed inwardly. “Alright. Sure. Now don’t get in trouble.” 

“ _ Yes!”  _ Lance said in hushed celebration, pumping his fists in the air excitedly. 

 

~~~...

Pidge~

“Why was I talked into this?” Pidge muttered to themself. “I hate stuff like this. I’m horrible at talking to people.” 

“You’re not that bad,” Matt reassured them. “Believe me. You’ve persuaded me to do many things that I never would have done normally.”

Pidge laughed, “That’s because you are so easy to manipulate sometimes though, oh brother of mine.” 

Matt rolled his eyes and Pidge decided that they needed to manipulate and tease him  _ just  _ a little. 

“So…” Pidge said as suspiciously as they could manage. “How are you and Shiro doing?” 

Matt smacked his hand to his face and slid it down while he moaned “ _ Pidgggee.....” _ Though, that probably wasn’t the smartest idea since he was the one driving. 

“What?” Pidge asked sweetly. “I was just asking how you and your… friend are.” 

Pidge watched as Matt rolled his eyes. “I know that you are implying more. You have zero subtlety abilities.”

“Who says I was being subtle?” Pidge asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Matt just sighed. “Do you have the blackmail ready?” 

“What blackmail?” Pidge asked, feigning innocence. It was so fun for them to play around with Matt.

“Look, Pidge,” Matt said, a smile twisting on his lips, “I know you. You wouldn’t come to persuade Keith without blackmail.” 

Pidge pondered the pros and cons of telling their brother about the pictures they had stored in their green jacket’s pockets. “I might tell you… if you tell me about Shiro.” They raised their eyebrows and stared at Matt with their head tilted towards him. 

“I would be happy to just talk to Keith. I don’t think we need any blackmail.” 

“But…” Pidge said tauntingly, “Don’t you want to see these pictures too?”

Matt pulled into the parking lot and put the car in park. He sat in silence, his arms folded across his chest. Pidge watched him carefully, waiting to see how he would break. 

“Fine,” Matt muttered, not looking at Pidge. “We haven’t talked since D&D.”

“Speaking of which… how was that drinking game?”

Matt folded his arms on the steering wheel and flopped his head on them, muffling his voice. “I was hoping I could get him to act drunk and then I could act drunk and maybe I would be courageous enough to sit in his lap or something.” 

“I would have videoed that,” Pidge replied thoughtfully. 

“Pidge… this is serious,” Matt whined as he turned his head, still on his arms, to face Pidge, “I am getting worse at being subtle! He’s going to notice that I like him at some point. And… and I can’t do that! I mean… other people have relationships and it’s fine but what would the group think? What would Shiro think?” 

All of the teasing inside of Pidge was pushed to a corner so that they could be there for their brother. “Matt,” they said placing a hand on his shoulder, “You two are wonderful friends and Shiro is the nicest person in the world. He wouldn’t be mad at you.” 

“But… it’s  _ wrong _ ,” Matt mumbled. 

“What is?” Pidge said tartly crossing their arms over their chest. “That my brother, Matt, is wonderfully in love with his best friend and wishes he could spend the rest of his life with him? I see no problem.”

“A:” Matt raised his hand to tally his arguments, “he’s my friend and friends are supposed to remain friends. B: Why would he ever like me? I’m weird and awkward. C: I’m a  _ guy _ .”

Pidge smirked, patting their brother on the back, “Thank you for coming out as being male.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I do…” Pidge conceded, “but, again, there is  _ nothing  _ wrong. Now, I’ve tortured you enough. Do you want to see the pictures?”

Matt nodded sitting up and leaning over to Pidge. Pidge pulled out their phone and opened up the photos section and scrolled through the folders until they found Keith’s blackmail folder. They opened it and found the picture they were looking for. 

In the picture, Keith was sleeping with his computer pushed off to the side, still open, his head was hanging off the bed, and he was hugging a large poster-board that was cut in the shape of mothman and had his picture pasted onto it. 

“Aw! Look at that peaceful look on his face!” Matt gushed.

“I know, right? Isn’t it just amazing?” Pidge commented. “I can’t wait to show him.” 

“Let’s go. You’ve got some blackmailing to do.” Matt unbuckled and got out of the car, locking it after Pidge exited. 

Pidge didn’t even wait for Matt to catch up to them before they were hopping into the school. It was later at night but Shiro had told them that Keith liked to stay late on Fridays at the library to study… and look up random conspiracies on the computer. 

Pidge was so excited that they had decided to go and talk to Shiro because he had the  _ best _ tips! And he also sent Pidge a plethora of blackmail photos. That alone made him a good person in Pidge’s book. 

Pidge rushed inside the school, opening the door with a bang and entering the hallway. Without waiting for their brother, Pidge dashed around corners and turns in the hallway until they came upon the library. 

Once inside, Pidge found the place to be virtually deserted except for Keith and a couple of other students studying while the two librarians put books away. Pidge was unsettled by the silence. They really hated silence. The library needed music or  _ something. _

Pidge marched over to where Keith was sitting and was amazed that he didn’t look up to notice them there. He looked so focused on his computer that Pidge became fascinated by watching his eyes dart across the page. 

“Wow, Keith,” Pidge commented as they walked behind him and rested an arm on his head. “You’re actually studying in a library.” 

And then Pidge glanced at his computer. And the books next to it. 

They were all conspiracy theories. 

_ Why am I not surprised?  _ Pidge wondered. 

“Hey,” Keith said defensively, shaking his head to knock Pidge’s arm off. It didn’t work. “I know I should be working but math homework is boring.” 

“All homework is boring.”

“True,” Keith commented, bookmarking the tab he was on and closing his computer. “So, what brings you here?” 

Pidge smiled mischievously. “You’ll see,” they said as they yanked Keith’s arm up and started to pull him. 

“Wait! Let me get my computer,” Keith protested. Pidge let him, reluctantly. 

After they exited the library, Keith leaned up against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. “Alright, what is it?” 

Pidge grinned and started pacing in front of him. They saw their brother Matt out of the corner of their eye as Matt was sitting on a bench nearby, ready to be the support team if Pidge needed it. 

“Well, I was recruited to… work on you.” 

Keith coked an eyebrow in apprehension. “That’s not suspicious at all,” he said dryly. 

“Well, I may have gotten some help to try… persuading you.” 

“To do what?” 

“I think you know what we want,” Pidge said silkily.

“No? No, I don’t,” Keith said, annoyance creeping into his voice. 

“Three words. D&D.” 

“Does that even count as three words?” Keith inquired. “I feel like that’s two letters and a symbol.” 

“Whatever,” Pidge muttered. “You know what I mean. No one cares about all the technicalities.” 

Keith shrugged. “Okay. What about D&D did you want to talk to me about?” 

“We want you to join,” Pidge said authoritatively. “It’s as simple as that.  _ But _ , before you argue,” they could just see the way that Keith was opening his mouth to argue joining. “I want you to know that I enlisted Shiro’s help?” 

“Wha—” Keith started. 

“Nope, Shiro helped me to find some pictures of my favorite thing in the world: Blackmail.” Pidge expected Keith to gasp dramatically. He didn’t. They needed to get Matt over here so that they could have an entourage. 

“Matt! I need support!” 

“Coming,” he said marching over. 

“Hi, Matt,” Keith said. “Do you know what the fuck is happening?” 

“Yes. Pidge is blackmailing you,” Matt said. 

“Ah,” Keith commented. 

“So…” Pidge said, trying to sound like an executioner interrogating to find a reason for the crimes. “Our conditions are that you join our D&D group, have fun, or else we will show…” Pidge swiped their phone as they talked pulling up the picture, “THIS.” 

Pidge turned the phone around to show Keith. 

He tilted his head. “It’s sideways.” 

“Ugh,” Pidge sighed. “Why does shit like this always ruin my plans?”

“Boo,” Matt, the not-so-supportive support, said.  

Pidge shook their phone until it turned to the proper direction. “I meant to show you… THIS.” 

Pidge watched carefully as Keith looked at the picture. He didn’t make any kind of expression.  _ Really? Really? Nothing?! What the fuck is wrong with you Keith? _

“Okay,” Keith said shrugging. “I told you, Mothman is my soulmate.”

“Dude…” Matt said. 

“What?” Keith asked. “Shiro has that picture up in his room. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it before, Matt.” 

Matt flushed pink. It was hilarious. 

“Anyway, I got over the embarrassment of that photo a long time ago,” Keith said, shrugging. 

Pidge was aghast. How could anyone  _ get over _ the embarrassment of a photo like that? Then an idea came into their head. Pidge had seen the way that Keith had been competing with Lance…

“Are you sure you want Lance to see this picture?” they asked slyly. 

Keith’s eyes narrowed. It did bother him. 

“I wouldn’t care.” 

“Wonderful! Then I’ll show him on Monday over lunch.”

Matt snorted. Pidge could still blackmail him. Hmm. 

“Okay,” Keith said, still trying to sound nonchalant, but Pidge could hear the strain in his voice. It was time to implement plan B.

“Cool. Well, I mean I do have to show everyone because they were the ones who hired me. Lance especially wanted you to join.” 

Keith’s eyes widened. “What? Why? He shouldn’t care.”

“From what I heard,” Matt supplied, “he wanted to kick your ass in the most epic way possible.”

“Really?” Keith said skeptically. “From what I saw, there was no way he could have beaten my magical vines.” 

Pidge snorted. “Keith, buddy, if you were to ever make internet vines, most of them would be about you throwing knives at a random object. Or they would show your devotion to Mothman. No one would watch them.”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Keith cried indignantly. “You don’t  _ know _ that. Maybe people would watch that. People watch other people doing strange stuff all of the time. You know that one vine where—”

“Yes, probably,” Pidge waved him off, “But right now, I don’t care. You need to listen to my demands.” 

“You can’t force me to listen. You hold nothing over me. And you’re not denying that I would beat Lance in a fight,” Keith smirked. 

Pidge sighed, “That’s because you probably would beat him. In D&D and in real life. In D&D, he’s a fucking bard. Bards can’t do anything. In real life you fence. And he… does whatever Lance does in his free time. I don’t know and I don’t want to. You could ask Hunk because he probably knows, being Lance’s best friend. I legit respect Hunk. That man puts up with so much. I, for one, don’t keep tabs on Lance because I’m assuming that whatever he does is weird and would scar me. I’m too innocent for that—”

Matt burst out a snort of laughter. “Pidge, you are  _ not _ innocent.” 

Pidge swatted at Matt while still looking at Keith. “Anyway! Yes, fine, you would probably win in a fight. The only thing that Lance could do is persuade you—”

“What?” Keith said monotonically. 

“To do as he says,” Pidge finished. “Hey, I’m just stating the facts and complimenting you. And you are getting me off topic. Let’s get down to business.”

Matt smiled, “To defeat the Huns.”

Pidge glanced at Matt, “Not now. Right now I want to convince Keith to join D&D.”

“Pidge,” Keith sighed, rubbing his eyes. “I already agreed to come back. I just wasn’t telling you guys because… reasons.”

Pidge nodded sagely. “Okay…”

“Sweet!” Matt said holding his hand for a high five that Keith returned. 

“Can I still show the picture at Monday’s lunch?”

“No,” Keith said. 

“But… what if  _ I _ want to more than  _ you _ don’t want me to?” Pidge inquired. 

“That makes no sense,” Keith told them. “And my answer is still no.”

“What if we make a new deal?” Matt said, looking at Pidge. He bent down to whisper in their ear. Pidge started nodding. They  _ loved _ this idea. 

“What are you two whispering about?” Keith asked. 

Matt smiled. “We have a new deal. You join us for lunch on Monday and we won’t show this photo or the other three Shiro sent Pidge. In fact, Pidge will delete the pictures from their phone. If you don’t show up, then we will retaliate and show everyone the pictures. Along with any more that Shiro might have on his phone.” 

Keith’s expression soured. He was probably thinking of all of the blackmail Shiro had stored on his phone and how he was dying to delete the pictures from Shiro’s phone. 

“Ugh,” Keith sighed. “Fine. I don’t want Lance making fun of me for the next century. Where do you guys sit?” 

~~~...

Keith~

Keith left the building with his satchel slung over his shoulder and walked towards where he parked his motorcycle. Shiro had gotten him his motorcycle when he turned 18 and it had been the best present ever. Well, really Shiro had gotten a rundown, used motorcycle and he and Keith had worked together to fix it up and paint it a bright shiny red color. 

Keith put his bag into the storage compartment and then put on his helmet and started driving home. He loved the way the wind rustled his jacket as he sped along the road not needing to stop because of the lack of people on the road. 

He wouldn’t let his mind think of anything as he drove. He wouldn’t let his mind think of Lance or Pidge or anyone else. He only allowed himself to feel the rush of the wind and the calming flash of the lights as he sped past.

Before he knew it, Keith was pulling into the apartment complex he and Shiro lived in. It felt like he was stuck in a slow moving void as he took off his helmet and locked his bike in and walked up the stairs until he came to the apartment door. 

He couldn’t help but sigh as he stuck his key in the lock (Shiro got paranoid and locked the door even when they were home). He walked in to see Shiro studying in the big chair he usually sat in in the living room area. He was reading a book but it was a hardcover that Shiro had removed the paper sleeve to, so Keith couldn’t tell what book he was reading. 

“Hi, Keith!” Shiro greeted warmly. Keith thought he looked too smart with his reading glasses on. It was weird. He set his book on the side table and stood up to walk over to where Keith was.

“Hey, Shiro,” Keith replied, heading to the kitchen to make a snack. He poured himself a bowl of cereal followed by pouring milk into it. 

“How did your library time go?” Shiro asked. “Wait. Did you grab real milk?”

Keith glared at Shiro, “Yes. Yes it is. Screw you I’m drinking it all.” He took a big bite just to accentuate his point, setting his bowl on the kitchen counter and leaning onto it next to Shiro. “And second, don’t play innocent. You know full well what happened tonight.”

Shiro tilted his head, his glasses glinting in the dim lighting like a freaking anime character. “Keith… you’re lactose intol—”

“Yes and you gave blackmail to  _ Pidge _ !” Keith said. “Did you plan to ruin my life?”

“You said that those photos don’t bother you,” Shiro replied. 

“It no longer bothers me that they are up in your room but that—” his glasses were too distracting. Keith couldn’t look at them any more. He reached up and snatched his brother’s glasses off of his face. 

Shiro didn’t react. He must have gotten used to Keith taking his glasses from him. 

“You aren’t supposed to wear these when you aren’t reading,” Keith told Shiro. “Remember?” 

Shiro sighed, “Yeah, I know. But maybe I just want to imitate you rebelling. Like you drinking real milk.” 

“Fuck off,” Keith muttered, draining his milk in two gulps. 

Shiro just shook his head and took his reading glasses, placing them on a shelf nearby. 

“Still,” Keith said, pushing Shiro back to the previous conversation, “Why did you give Pidge those photos as blackmail?” 

Shiro shrugged. “They asked. Apparently Lance and Hunk were asking them to blackmail you and Pidge wanted some photos to use. It made sense. We all want you to join our D&D group and Pidge is the best at persuading.”

“Blackmailing,” Keith corrected. “There is no persuading. Pidge only works in the dark arts.” 

“True,” Shiro nodded. He paused as though considering his words. “So… are you going to join us? I really think—”

“Yes, Shiro,” Keith said as he dropped his bowl into the sink. “I had already decided that I would join. I just wasn’t telling you guys because…”

“Because you weren’t sure that everyone really wanted you to join?” Shiro suggested. 

“Well… yeah. I just figured everyone was being nice to me.” Keith didn’t look at Shiro. He didn’t have to. Shiro knew first hand how… out of place Keith felt he was. 

“Keith,” Shiro placed his left hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith felt the slight chill and smooth surface of Shiro’s prosthetic through his jacket,  but it didn’t bother him. Not anymore. “If this group accepted me, then they will no doubt want you to join them as well.” 

Keith held still for a moment longer, letting the pressure of Shiro’s hand comfort him before he shrugged his brother off and said “I’m going to my room.” 

“Okay,” Shiro replied. 

Keith walked down the hallway before remembering that he had one more thing to talk to Shiro about. “Oh, and Shiro? I was blackmailed into eating lunch with you guys on monday so can you show me where everyone sits?” 

Shiro grinned, “Of course. I can’t wait to see how that goes.” His tone had a slightly malicious edge. 

“How what goes?” Keith asked, suddenly suspicious of what Shiro knew about the table. 

“Oh, nothing,” Shiro dismissed, waving his arm for Keith to go to his room. “You’ll find out on Monday.”

“But—” Keith tried. 

“I know you want to know but I’m not telling you. I don’t want my head mounted on Pidge’s wall.” 

Keith couldn’t help but laugh softly. He knew that his brother wasn’t going to give up the information so Keith shook his head and went into his room. 

The door closed behind him with a soft  _ thump _ ; Keith set down his school bag next to the foot of his bed.

He  _ really  _ didn’t feel like doing homework. He was too wound up from Pidge and all of their blackmail. 

And he was too worried about joining Shiro’s D&D group. Wasn’t there something about little brother’s not encroaching on their older brother’s friend groups? What if they were just being nice to Keith as a favor to Shiro or something. Keith didn’t want to be just another person that they had to drag along. 

A part of him wanted to believe that they sincerely wanted him to come back and play more with them, but the other part of him was worried and doubtful. 

And… even though it was partially from Shiro, Keith didn’t like that they were blackmailing him. No matter the reason Keith didn’t like depending on other people’s kindness. He wished that they would just trust him and ask him to join instead of conning him into it. 

Though, that was the only way Shiro had managed to get Keith to try out one game of D&D, so Keith supposed it was a proven method. 

Maybe lunch wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe everyone genuinely did want to see him and talk to him. Maybe they would be happy to have him join their group. 

And maybe whatever ritual Shiro had been talking about, wouldn’t actually be that bad? 

Or… maybe Lance had something diabolically horrible that Keith would have to endure like having to act like a princess for the entirety of Lunch. 

Keith could just imagine Lance acting like a knight and trying to do chivalrous things for Keith all through the duration of Lunch, and maybe even after it, while Pidge filmed the whole thing and Matt tried to be a peasant or  a slave for someone like Shiro. 

On second thought, maybe something like that wouldn’t be so bad. 

_ Oh, shit. _ Keith thought to himself.  _ Did I really just think that spending time with  _ Lance _ wouldn’t be so bad? Ugh.  _

 

 


	2. Drinking and Diving Off of Cliffs.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Keith,” Pidge said to get his attention, “Do you want me to share the picture? I can. Or you could wear the tutu….” 
> 
> “Wait wait wait,” Keith grumbled, “Don’t show the picture.”
> 
> “I think this is a win-win situation for me,” Lance said. He could just imagine Keith in a tutu and tiara and the idea made him crack up with laughter. 
> 
> Keith glared at him but didn’t say anything. He turned back to Pidge and said, “I am not wearing a tutu but I will make a deal with you.” 
> 
> “Oooh,” Lance muttered under his breath, “You are making a deal with the devil there.” 
> 
> Pidge nodded appreciatively. “Alright Keith,” they said, “What have you got?” 
> 
>  
> 
> Keith is initiated into the group with an eventful night and Matt manages to get his wish and get Shiro drunk... but it doesn't go quite as well as he expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Chapter 2!
> 
> Let me just say that this is a self indulgent fic for me and my friends. I love it, with all of my heart, but... it's kind of weird. Funny, but weird. Anyway, the art for this was a lot of fun and the story was so weird and was no what I was expecting for this chapter. 
> 
> There isn't any D&D though... next chapter there will be! (probably).
> 
> Anyway, for my small group reading this, enjoy!!

Lance~

Lance had been told that Keith would be joining them for their lunch today. He couldn’t help but anxiously await Keith coming. He was curious what would happen. He wondered if Keith would have to do the initiation. 

Who was Lance kidding? Of COURSE Keith would have an initiation. There was no way that Pidge would let him get out of it. And if they did, Lance would fight for it. 

Lance was the only one looking out for Keith while everyone else was distracted with their own conversations. Ergo, Lance was the first one to spot Keith’s stupid mullet when he walked in next to Shiro.

“There he is!” Lance called, accidentally interrupting a story Hunk was telling. “Mullet decided to show up!” 

Hunk glanced at him suspiciously but Lance merely winked at him and waved to Shiro. “Shiro! You brought him! Now we can make him suffer and bask in my own glory.”

“But by Keith showing up, that means we can’t show the blackmail,” Pidge reminded him. “And, alas, I think I have to delete it.” 

Lance noticed Matt subtly shaking his head no to Pidge. Pidge snorted and turned their head down so that they could hide their smile. 

Lance would have been surprised if they had actually decided to delete whatever blackmail was on their phone. As Pidge said, blackmail can always be recycled. 

Keith walked up to the table and stood awkwardly, his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt and black pants. Lance wondered if he had any color variety in what he wore or if it was always just black and maybe red. 

“You can sit down,” Hunk told Keith gesturing to the open seat that was, of course, next to Lance. Why wouldn’t Lance be stuck next to him? Well, at least he would have a good view of the blackmailing. 

Awkwardly, Keith crept over and took a seat. On Keith’s other side, Shiro sat smiling at everyone. “I brought Keith.” 

“It was a group effort,” Matt added, smiling as he stared at Shiro. 

“We struggled,” Pidge agreed. 

Keith rolled his eyes, “Yeah, and you blackmailed me. So here I am. I showed up.” 

“Good for you,” Pidge said dryly. 

“Can you delete the photos now?” Keith asked. 

“There would be no point,” Hunk said sympathetically. “Pidge could recover them really easily.” 

“Are you kidding me?” Keith groaned. 

“No,” Allura said as she took a drink of her coffee. 

“That’s why we all fear Pidge,” Lance added. 

“Can I please just pull a Shiro and just… die?” Keith groaned. 

“I don’t know whether to be offended or complimented by that…” Shiro said pensively. “Do I really talk about wanting to die that often?” 

“Yes,” everyone chorused around the table. 

“I think you said you wanted to die at least five times during last period,” Hunk said nervously. 

“I was annoyed,” Shiro mumbled. 

Keith put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. People annoy me too.” 

“Do you two need help?” Hunk asked quietly. 

Keith and Shiro looked at each other, shrugged, and then at Hunk. “Eh…” Keith said. “Probably,” Shiro added. 

“It’s fine,” Pidge assured them. “Wanting death is normal.” 

“No it isn’t?” Hunk told them, sounding confused. 

Pidge turned to him. “I don’t know what world you are living in, but I’m pretty sure that it’s normal.” 

“Pidge, nothing you think or do is normal,” Allura commented. 

“Can I just hug all of you?” Hunk asked. “And bake cookies? And send you to therapy?” 

“Cookies are always appreciated,” Matt piped up. 

“I’ll decline the other two,” Keith added. 

“I’ll take a hug,” Lance said, leaning over to his friend who obliged. 

“So anyway,” Allura said, “I heard that Keith would have to go through the  _ initiation. _ ” 

Lance remembered when he went through their initiation. He had dressed in a blue cat costume and had to sneak into Principal Iverson’s office to steal a pen. It hadn’t been that difficult, but he had almost been caught. He wanted to know how Keith handled that. 

“Yes,” Pidge said, folding their hands and crossing their legs like they were preparing to do business. “The Initiation.” 

Keith sighed, “What do I have to do?”

Lance grinned, “Eh, It’s not that bad. I swear, if I can do it, you can probably do it.” 

“I can do  _ anything _ you can do  _ way _ better.” 

“Oh really?” Lance challenged. 

“Yes really,” Keith cemented. 

“Well, for this initiation,” Pidge interjected, “You have to use that glorious motorcycle.” 

“Alright,” Keith nodded. “What should I do? Are we talking ‘get away cycle’ or stunts?”

Pidge looked away at the wall for a moment and then said, “Drive off of a cliff.” 

“Fuck yeah!” Keith exclaimed. “That is just my kind of initiation.” 

“Alright,” Lance said slyly, “Then how about you have to wear a tiara,  _ milady _ .” Lance knew that his nephew had a tiara that Lance could borrow that would be just  _ perfect.  _

Keith glared at him with such a force of death, that Lance was sure Keith was attempting to mentally strangle him and was succeeding. 

“And a tutu,” Allura added, smiling sweetly. 

“Oh, god, yes,” Matt agreed. “A pink tutu and a tiara for the Dwarven Princess.” 

Keith turned his glare to all of them. “Fuck off, all of you. I am  _ not _ wearing a pink tutu.” 

“Would you wear a red one?” Matt asked. 

“I am not wearing  _ any _ tutus.” 

“Welp,” Pidge shrugged. “I suppose that I’ll just have to show all of these pictures. You know, I especially like the one that Shiro sent me of when you were running through the sprinklers with an inflatable hippo.” 

“SHIRO,” Keith shouted, “How could you BETRAY me like that?” 

Shiro was snorting trying to hold back laughter, “Keith I—” 

“W-w-wait,” Lance interrupted, “You did  _ what _ with a hippo?” 

“Keith likes hippos,” Shiro said. 

“Shiro!” Keith shouted. “You don’t have to announce that!” 

“Keith….” Shiro sighed, “Is your hippo thing really worse than Mothman?” 

“To other people…” Keith trailed off, “I’m not sure but Mothman is my soulmate and you can’t convince me otherwise.” 

“So….” Lance said, leaning over to Pidge to whisper in their ear, “I’m tempted to ask who Mothman is but I don’t really want to unleash a three hour powerpoint lecture?” 

Pidge nodded. “Good call. But you got your time estimate all wrong. More like a thirty six hour powerpoint.” 

Shiro was sighing, “I give up.” 

“Keith,” Pidge said to get his attention, “Do you want me to share the picture? I can. Or you could wear the tutu….” 

“Wait wait wait,” Keith grumbled, “Don’t show the picture.”

“I think this is a win-win situation for me,” Lance said. He could just imagine Keith in a tutu and tiara and the idea made him crack up with laughter. 

Keith glared at him but didn’t say anything. He turned back to Pidge and said, “I am  _ not _ wearing a tutu but I will make a deal with you.” 

“Oooh,” Lance muttered under his breath, “You are making a deal with the devil there.” 

Pidge nodded appreciatively. “Alright Keith,” they said, “What have you got?” 

“What if I wore the tiara all week?” Keith asked. 

Pidge tilted their head to the side, weighing their options. “Okay… that would work. IF we can call you Princess Keith the whole week.” 

Keith moaned, sinking back in his chair and tilting his head back. Lance noticed that his hair was dangling down in tangly clumps. Stupid mullet. 

“UGH,” Keith moaned, “Fine. I suppose this is better than the tutu.” 

“Shake on it?” Pidge asked. 

“I feel like this is rigged,” Keith said, “But fine???” 

“Wait wait,” Shiro said quickly. “You are doing this? Jumping off of a cliff? No no no!” 

“Chill, dad,” Pidge said. “I was thinking that one sloping cliff out south of the school. You know, the one by the picnic benches?”

Shiro looked at the ceiling, contemplating life. “That is still really not safe.”

“Shiro,” Keith said softly, “I  _ want  _ to do this. Let me go. Let me be free.” 

“Keith?” Shiro moaned. “What the heck?”

“Let him be free,” Lance agreed. 

Shiro sighed, “Can’t we just do the usual ini—”

“Ba-ba-ba,” Pidge interrupted. “This is a variation of what we always do.”

“Don’t you remember, Shiro?” Matt asked, joining in on Pidge’s rouse. 

“No I really don’t.” Shiro grumbled. 

“Well, you are getting old,” Lance commented. “Memory is faulty and all that.” 

“Yep, he’s almost seven,” Keith announced. 

“Oh god, Keith,” Shiro groaned loudly. “First of all, how can seven be old? Yesterday, you called me six and a child and now you are calling me old? I see how it is. My age is only convenient when it needs to be. Secondly, I don’t want to remind the others of my age.” 

“I know,” Hunk sighed. “Sometimes it is rough being a parent of six when you are only six yourself.” 

Lance started laughing, as Shiro just looked so done with everyone. 

“I just want to die.”

Matt laughed, “And that brings the tally up to seven times of death just today! And lunch isn’t even over. I think we have reached a new record.” 

“I think you are making that up but okay,” Shiro sighed. 

“I’m pretty sure he said that at least ten times during one D&D campaign one day. And that was only a three hour day,” Allura added. 

“You have a point there,” Matt agreed. “He tried to jump into a fire trap just because he wanted to.”

“Well,” Pidge said, “As much as I love Shiro being the dad, six, and dead all at once, Lunch is almost over and Keith and I haven’t shaken on it.” 

“Let’s make it a blood pact,” Keith said, drawing his knife out. 

“Dude!” Lance exclaimed. “Do you literally have a knife in your bag?” 

“Yes,” Shiro sighed softly. 

“YES!” Keith proclaimed proudly. “I love this knife. It is made of—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Pidge said. “It’s blood pact time.” 

“Um,” Hunk said quietly, “how about you don’t do that? Some of us are eating and don’t like blood. Also… how did you get that into school? ” 

“But blood keeps you from being a dried out pile of loose bones and skin,” Matt told him. “I don’t want to roll around with my skin flapping against my bones all of the time.” 

“That just sounds so wrong,” Hunk told Matt. 

“Why thank you,”  Matt said. 

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Hunk said quietly. 

“Please, Keith,” Shiro said, “Put the knife away and just shake your hands together.” 

Keith opened his mouth like he was going to protest but then must have decided against it. Lance was sure that Shiro was very used to telling Keith to put his knife away.

“Fine,” Keith grumbled then glanced at Pidge. 

“Spit pact?” Pidge asked. 

Keith nodded and spit into his hand. Pidge did the same and they shook on it. 

“ _ Guys, _ ” Hunk protested. “That is so unsanitary. Here. Have some hand sanitizer.” Hunk produced a small bottle from his backpack and held it open and ready to be squeezed at any moment. 

“Hunk,” Pidge said, “That kind of defeats the purpose of a spit pact.”

“I don’t care,” Hunk said. “Sanitize.” 

“But—” Pidge tried. 

Before they could get far in protesting, Hunk grabbed their hand and squirted a large amount of sanitizer onto it.

“H _ unk _ ,” Pidge groaned. “This stuff smells like health. I don’t want to be healthy. It hurts my head.” 

“Deal with it,” Hunk grumbled walking over to Keith.

“Hands, now,” He said. 

Keith looked up and hissed at him. “No. That defeats the purpose.” 

“SEE! HE GETS IT!” Pidge cried as they shook their hands to dry them of the sanitizer.”

Hunk shook his head and grabbed Keith’s hand before he could really move. He squirted a large dollop onto Keith’s hand. 

“Why don’t you guys just do pinky promises? It’s not that hard, less dangerous, and much more sanitary.” Hunk told them. 

“Because pinky promises are for the weak!” Pidge shouted.

“Booooo….” Keith sighed staring at his hand. “Ugh. Pidge, you are right. This stuff sucks.” 

“I KNOW!” they cried in outrage. “DOESN’T IT???

“It smells like doctors and doctors keep you alive and that sounds awful,” Keith complained. 

“What a mood,” Shiro said. 

Lance paused, wondering if he had heard Shiro correctly. 

Matt seemed to share Lance’s look of shock and confusion. 

“So tonight?” Allura asked. “At dusk?” 

“Yes,” Keith said. “I’m ready.” 

“Keith…” Shiro said. 

“I’ll bring the tiara!” Lance added. He thought about  his nephew’s tiara that he figured would be just perfect.

“Fantastic,” Pidge nodded. “It’s settled then. Let the initiation of Princess Keith commence tonight at dusk!” 

 

~~

Keith~

Riding his motorcycle, Keith had followed Shiro (who was driving Pidge and Matt in a van) to the place they were supposed to meet. 

He was expecting a huge cliff with a sheer drop that would be almost impossible to do and would probably result in death. Keith was ready to try. 

But what he saw was a gently sloping incline compared to what he had been imagining. It was still a steep cliff but it wasn’t directly vertical. 

Keith shook his head as he pulled his motorcycle to a stop. 

He looked around and saw that the sun was already below the horizon causing the sky to be an ombre of blues and yellows with clouds that seemed to almost glow a deep red. The shadows of the surrounding plateaus and cliffs stretched along the ground, shading the rocky terrain with greys and browns. 

Allura, Hunk, and Lance were already there while Matt and Pidge stepped out of the van Shiro had been driving them in. Matt was holding a bottle of wine in one hand and a pack of soda in the other. Shiro was carrying a small handheld first aid kit.

Keith put his bike into park and took off his helmet, shaking his head a little to get his hair to stop sticking to his neck. 

He could hear Matt and Shiro bickering about their items. 

“Why did you bring an alcoholic drink when you, me, and Allura are the only ones who can drink?” Shiro was asking.

Matt shrugged. “Why did you bring a tiny first-aid kit? If Keith gets hurt he’s going to need a lot more than a bandage and some neosporin.” 

“I brought it because I wanted to.” Shiro told Matt.

“Same with my wine,” Matt told him.

Keith suspected that Matt just wanted to try to get Shiro drunk, though he wouldn’t say so directly.

Keith hung his helmet on the handlebars of his motorcycle and got off, going over to greet the rest of the group. 

“So you didn’t chicken out, eh, Mullet?” Lance said jokingly, his extraordinarily blue eyes twinkling with a challenge. 

“Did you think I would?” Keith retorted. 

“Yeah,” Lance shrugged, “I figured you wouldn’t be up for our hard-core ideas. Oh, and here’s your tiara, Princess.” 

“Wow,” Keith deadpanned, taking the tiara from Lance. “You really thought I would pass up a chance to leap off of a cliff. I’m so offended. This has been my dream since I saw Shiro doing it—”

“Nope. That’s enough,” Shiro interrupted. 

“No, no, no,” Pidge interrupted. “Hold it. I smell a teenage Shiro story. Gimme.” 

“Yes,” Matt agreed. “I love hearing about Shiro. I mean, uh, hearing his stories. Or… stories about him?” 

Pidge sighed and patted their brother on his shoulder. 

“Not now,” Shiro said waving everyone off. “This is Keith’s time.”

Keith remembered that he was supposed to be embarrassing himself. He looked down at the tiara in his hands and saw that it was a cheap golden plastic with a large red gem in the center of it. Keith placed it on his forehead and pushed some of his hair back with it.

“You look beautiful,” Lance told him his eyes flickering over Keith’s face.

Keith snorted. “Yeah. No.” 

“Aw, but Princess Keith is the fairest in all the land!” 

“I will not hesitate to stab you,” Keith said, glaring daggers. 

“Alas,” Matt sighed dramatically, “That is a part of the initiation. Wear a tiara all week and jump of the cliff with your motorcycle.”

“Speaking of which, guys:” Keith said, “I do have to say, I’m disappointed in your choice of cliffs. I mean… you could have picked one with a steeper slope, maybe a higher drop… sharp rocks….” 

“Keith!” Hunk shouted, “No! You don’t want to crash to your death.”

 

“Why?” Keith asked. “It would be epic. Plus, Shiro survived something way taller than  _ this _ so if I survived an epic cliff like he did, I would be a legend.” 

“He does have a point,” Lance told Hunk. “It would be a pretty epic way to die.”

“Please… no dying!” Hunk requested. 

“I don’t think you could die on this bunny slope if you tried,” Keith observed.

“Well….” Allura piped up, “I think if you were going fast enough and flipped over the motorcycle then you would probably die.” 

“Only if  you couldn’t take the pain of death,” Keith added. “If you could, then would you really be dead?” 

“Wait… so you are suggesting that you survive out of pure stubbornness?” Allura asked. 

“Yes,” Pidge responded. “That is the only way you live.” 

“No it’s not…” Hunk murmured. 

Keith snorted, “Um, yeah it is. Shiro? Matt? You two want to back Pidge and me up?” 

“Yeah,” Shiro said, “I think that Life is just playing with you until it decides to end the torture.” 

“Well,” Matt half-smiled, “I don’t have any deep thoughts to add, but yes, Keith. 100%.” 

“How about you Lance?” Keith asked. “Where do you stand with Life?” 

“Dude, I live Life. I say that if anything goes wrong, fuck the universe and do it yourself.”

“Lance…” Hunk said slowly.

Keith snickered to himself.

“What?” Lance questioned, “I don’t owe the universe anything. It can either fuck or get fucked.” 

“Lance, what the heck?” Hunk asked him. 

“What?” Lance asked defensively. 

Hunk shook his head. Keith rolled his eyes and said “So… am I jumping this thing or what? I want to experience death.” Keith caught the look Shiro was giving him and immediately added, “Not that I will. ...Die. I’ll probably be fine.”

“Keith…” 

“Fine, I promise not to not die right now unless it is an accident.”

“Even then, don’t die! I do not want to file any paperwork.”

Keith looked at Shiro, placing a hand over his heart. “Wow, Shiro. You just told me that my life is worth boring paperwork.” 

“All life is worthless,” Shiro mumbled. “I mean… just look at me.” 

“Shiro,” Matt butted in, “Your life has worth! A lot of worth. You are worth… you are worth a McDonald’s Happy Meal. Wait. No. That came out wrong. I meant you bring… the happiness.” 

“No,” Shiro deadpanned, shaking his head sadly. “I really don’t.”

“But you…” Matt trailed off. 

“I don’t know about you guys,” Pidge smirked, “But I’m lovin’ it.” 

“Shut up,” Matt grumbled. 

“Alright,” Allura  shouted, “Could we get started with the cliff jumping?”

“Please,” Keith said, “I’m so ready.” 

“I have the filming equipment set up,” Pidge told the group. They were standing next to a tripod, turning on a shining grey camera. 

“Why not use your phone?” Allura inquired. 

“Well… my phone is getting kinda full on storage. So this works as backup,” Pidge said. 

“You know, you could just delete some of those ‘prized’ blackmail photos and videos,” Matt told them. 

“No way!” Pidge cried. “These only get better with time!!!”

“That is true,” Lance said, pointing at Pidge, “I mean, do you remember that one video of Hunk baking those cookies?” 

“Um, yes?!” Pidge laughed. “That one’s great.”

“What!?” Hunk balked, “You still  _ have _ that? Really? Can’t we just get rid of it?”

“Nope, never,” Pidge said. 

“But… that was like four years ago…” Hunk sighed weakly. 

“Sorry, bro,” Lance said as he wrapped an arm around Hunk’s shoulder. “You have to suffer with me. They somehow got blackmail from my sister of when I  _ was _ four so…” 

“I want to see this,” Keith announced. 

“I’ve got you,” Pidge said, nodding. 

“NO!” Lance bellowed, “No, do  _ not _ show that video to Keith.” 

Pidge raised their eyebrows in an attempt to look innocent, “Aww… but you are so adorable with all of those little bubbles in your hair.” 

“Now I  _ really _ want to see this video,” Keith told them. 

“No, you don’t,” Lance told him. “And I can and will fight you.” 

“Please,” Keith dismissed, “I could take you.” 

“Oh, just try me, Mullet.” 

“How about we start the cliff jumping?” Allura asked. 

“Lance… I’ve been to juvie,” Keith added, raising an eyebrow.  

“You’ve done  _ what? _ ” Lance said in disbelief. Keith enjoyed the surprised look on his face. 

“Yeah. You heard me. I was in juvie and it was no joke. I had to fight to keep my place on top of everyone.” 

“Keith,” Shiro interjected, “You were there for maybe an hour. Then I bailed you out.” 

“Oooh,” Pidge murmured, “What did you do?”

“He stole my car,” Shiro laughed. “And he tried to drive away despite only being eleven.” 

“My offense may have been minor,” Keith told the group, “But I did have to fight and I went out with an explosion.”

“No, you didn’t,” Shiro sighed, rubbing his forehead. 

“Shiro, shut up,” Keith muttered, “They don’t need to know that.” 

Before Shiro could mess him up any further, Keith walked over to his bike and picked up the helmet. Before putting it on, he realized he needed to remove the princess tiara. Keith smiled slyly. 

“Who wants it?” he shouted as he flung the tiara dramatically towards his friends like it was a bridal bouquet.

The only person who dove for the tiara was Lance. He caught it triumphantly. “Hey! This is my nephew’s! I don’t want to bring it back to him all damaged!”  

“Your nephew?” Hunk asked. 

“Yeah,” Lance smiled. “He likes to play rescue the princess where I’m a big dragon who rescues him and flies him around on my back.” 

Keith smiled, thinking about how good of an uncle Lance would be. The thought of him playing with his nephews and nieces caused Keith to feel almost… warm inside.

But that was ridiculous. 

Keith shook his head and put on his helmet, deciding that he would leave the group as dramatically as possible. 

He didn’t look in front of him as he revved the engine a time or two and then took a last glance to where everyone was. Allura and Hunk both looked excited and yet worried. Pidge was grinning smugly. Shiro looked apprehensive, Matt was looking mainly at Keith but occasionally throwing glance back towards Shiro. 

And then Keith looked at Lance. Lance was giving him a sideways smile and a small nod.

Keith started going and gave the group a two finger salute before heading off towards the edge of the cliff.

He began to build up speed, pushing the motorcycle and racing towards the edge of the cliff. Right as he went over, the motorcycle left the ground and landed with a thump a moment later. Keith was hurtling down the side, weaving in and out of rocks. 

It reminded him of when he and Shiro used to go riding their motorcycles around.

Keith wasn’t afraid of these rocks in the slightest. He put on speed, going faster and faster.  _ Left. Right. Right. Left. Right. Left _ on and on he went until he was nearing the bottom of the cliff. 

On his left, Keith saw a slightly raised rock. A terrible idea popped into his head. Keith smiled and turned sharply towards the rock, traveling up it like a ramp until he he reached the end and was once again airborne. 

He tilted his weight to the side and forced the bike into an 180 turn. 

The wheels hit the ground, casting up a thick cloud of dust and dirt in front of Keith. He had to fight the motorcycle from capsizing. 

Thankfully, he managed to stay on. He looked up at the group still on top of the inclined cliff. Keith raised a fist triumphantly and he heard a faint series of whoops and calls from on top of the cliff. 

Keith smiled, genuinely smiled. 

Ascending the cliff was slower and not nearly as interesting as the descent had been but Keith eventually made it to the top with a soft hop and a solid thump in the dusted ground. 

“HUZZAH FOR PRINCESS KEITH!!!” Lance shouted over everyone’s cheers. 

“I’m proud of you, Keith,” Shiro told him, as Keith put the motorcycle into park and stood up from it, removing his helmet and placing it on the handles. “You survived.” 

“You are officially apart of the Cult of D&D weirdos,” Matt told him. 

“It was a pretty epic jump,” Pidge admitted. 

“‘Pretty epic?’” Hunk questioned. “It was terrifyingly spectacular.” 

“Thank you?” Keith responded but he couldn’t help but smile at the group. 

“That turn that you did at the bottom was really neat,” Allura told him. “

Keith shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard.”

“I know it took you weeks to master,” Shiro smiled. 

“And how long did it take you?” Keith asked, a faint smirk playing on his lips. 

Shiro shrugged, “A week? It wasn’t that easy.” 

At that moment, Keith’s right arm was yanked violently from where he had crossed his arm across his chest. He spun around with the momentum to find Lance smiling at him, holding his wrist in his hand. His smile wasn’t teasing or cocky like Lance’s smiles usually were. This one was softer, more genuine. It relaxed his eyes and showed his dimples. 

_ Lance has dimples? _ Keith wondered. 

“Good job, Mullet,” Lance said in a softer voice. He was still holding onto Keith’s wrist. 

Then his face twisted back into its usual obnoxious smirk. “I mean,” he said with that sly smile and teasing tone that were so  _ Lance _ . “Adequate job, Princess Mullet.” 

Lance let go of Keith’s wrist and instantly Keith’s arm felt colder. He watched as Lance reached for the tiara which he had placed on his own head, and pulled it off. 

“My fair Princess Keith,” he said dramatically bowing his head and presenting the tiara upon the palms of his outstretched hands. “I would like to bestow upon you this tiara to show and complete your initiation into the royal keep of the D&D geeks.” 

Keith had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. This was just too good. 

Lance stood up slowly and, with his head still bowed, he declared, “I present thee with thy tiara, Princess Keith!” And with that he tilted his head up, a soft smirk playing on his lips as he reached up to Keith’s head. 

Lance brushed some of Keith’s longer hairs back behind his ears and off of his forehead with a gentle finger. Keith couldn’t help but shiver at his touch. 

Then Lance slipped the tiara onto Keith’s head, slipping it beneath his hair so that it hugged his skull. 

When he was done, Keith had to look away. His face felt hot. His palms felt clammy. 

_ Oh god, _ was he  _ blushing? _

Keith glanced back at Lance to see that he was smiling softly with his head bowed and his cheeks a faint pink, though Keith swore he imagined that. 

“Fantastic,” Pidge shouted. “Now I have even more film content to use.”

“What are you even gathering film for?” Allura asked. 

“A ‘ah, remember all of those great blackmail moments / times I used blackmail to get you guys to do stupid shit’ video.” 

“So,” Hunk said, walking up to Lance and Keith and placing a hand on each of their shoulders, “How was it?”

Keith took a moment to answer because he suddenly realized that he and Lance were still standing within a foot of each other. Lance must have noticed, too, because he refused to look at Keith and seemed to look like he was pulling away from Hunk. Keith was trying to do the same. 

But he also wanted to taunt Lance with the action. A part of him wanted to step closer just to make the egotistical idiot squirm. 

However, Keith was just as anxious to take a step back, so he merely turned to Hunk and ducked downwards to evade Hunk’s grasp. 

“I mean,” Keith said indifferently, “I’ve jumped off of more vertical and higher cliffs than this, so this was nothing.” 

“Still more hardcore than sneaking in to Iverson’s office though,” Hunk told him. 

“True, that’s a leisurely part of routine,” Keith deadpanned. 

“I cannot tell if you are joking,” Allura commented, shaking her head. 

“I think he is,” Pidge speculated, “But I can’t be sure.” 

They all turned their heads after hearing a loud pop from behind them. Matt had just opened a bottle of wine for the three adults able to drink. 

“Bro…” Pidge whispered, “That’s so not cool…….”

Keith sighed, “I don’t know, I’ve seen Shiro drunk and it is… interesting. I don’t think I want to try drinking.”

“Well, I can’t wait,” Lance said. “My grandpa let me try a swig of his beer when I was like twelve but that stuff was so nasty I had to practically disinfect my mouth with a pound of toothpaste.” 

“Are you kidding?” Keith asked, “I mean… first of all, why would that make you  _ want _ to try drinking? And Second: who lets a twelve year old drink beer?” 

“Well… from what I’ve been told, he didn’t expect that I would like it,” Lance said, laughing softly to himself, his eyes downcast in a way that made Keith think he was reliving the memory. “And he was right, the stuff tasted  _ awful _ .” 

“So then why drink it?” Hunk asked. 

“Because I want to try it again,” Lance said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Duh.” 

“That makes zero sense, Lance.” Keith breathed. 

“But I want to just walk into my Grandpa’s house, chug a beer, and then leave,” Lance told him. “I have to do so out of spite. He ruined my dreams of alcohol so I had to make new ones.” 

“Again, that makes zero sense.” 

“Plus,” Lance said looking at Keith out of the corner of his eye, “I could then try other types of alcohol. Wine, rum, whiskey… the list goes on.” 

“That’s true,” Allura said, “I personally like those really good whiskeys. But I’ll take a wine any day.” She stood up and stretched, leaning backwards. “Speaking of which, I’m going to go grab a glass and then head out. Goodbye everyone! Good job, Keith! I can’t wait to see you for D&D Wednesday.”

Everyone nodded and said goodbye to her and then went back to their conversations. 

“Guys, do you remember how we made Lance dress up like a cat to do his initiation?” Hunk asked everyone. 

Pidge snorted, “Of course I do! I have the photographic evidence to prove it!”

“You did  _ what _ ?” Keith asked Lance. 

“Um,” he muttered, “Yeah, so they bought me this blue cat onesie with a hood that had ears on it and short curly tail on the back, and they told me that I had to wear it when I snuck in to get a pen so that’s what I did.” 

“Wow,” Keith said. “I can’t believe they made you wear that.” 

“He wore it for the whole day, no less,” Pidge smirked. 

“Wow,” Keith murmured, “Do you still have the outfit?” he asked. 

“Well… yeah,” Lance said, shrugging. “Why wouldn’t I? I wear it for my nieces and nephews sometimes and they love it.” 

Once again Keith got that weird feeling in his stomach. He didn’t like it. And yet he wanted to go inside Lance’s house. He wanted to see his family. He wanted to see what it was like when Lance was there. 

“So, Pidge,” Keith said to change the subject, “What was  _ your  _ breaking and entering like?” 

“Me? I’m one of the founders of this group so we didn’t have any costumes or anything. I just slipped in and out and it wasn’t a big deal.” 

“That’s lame,” Lance sighed. “Hunk, your turn.” 

Hunk sighed. “I had to wear dog ears and I almost knocked over both his desk and his pile of books that was by the entry door. If I had, the noise would have gotten me caught so I’m really glad I didn’t.”

“Impressive…” Keith said, leaning back onto his bike. Keith looked out over the cliff’s edge to where the remaining tendrils of red light were fading into the horizon in a wash of indigo blue. 

“How do you go so fast?” Lance whispered, suddenly materializing next to Keith. 

“ _ God _ , Lance!” Keith cried, startled. “Don’t  _ do  _ that.”

“What?” Lance asked innocently, shrugging as he leaned against the seat of the motorcycle. 

Keith shook his head. “To answer your previous question, it is just like how a car can go fast… I’m just on a motorcycle.” 

Keith looked up to see that Pidge and Hunk had headed to the drink table to grab sodas for all of the minors. Shiro and Matt were no where that Keith could see. 

That left Lance practically alone with Keith. 

“That’s cool,” Lance told Keith. He had such a nice smile when he wasn’t teasing or making sly comments. 

Keith could see one of his dimples as he gave Keith a sideways smile. 

Keith noticed how his hair was rustling slightly in the breeze. He noticed how relaxed Lance seemed, with his hands casually in his pockets as he leaned up against Keith’s motorcycle. 

The faint remaining sunlight seemed to illuminate his face in a wonderful way. His eyes just seemed to glow in the light.

Keith tore his head away. He would  _ not  _ be caught thinking about Lance like that.

They weren’t even friends. 

Keith didn’t need to be friends with Lance. 

He didn’t want to be apart of Lance’s life in such a close way. 

He didn’t want to talk about personal things with Lance and actually open up to him. 

He didn’t want to be close to Lance. 

There was no way that he wanted to be in any kind of  _ relationship _ with him. 

He didn’t want to hold Lance. 

He didn’t want to hold Lance’s hand. 

He didn’t want to… kiss… Lance….

_ No! _ Keith chastised himself.  _ No, goddammit! You are  _ not  _ getting a crush on the absolute most annoying person in the entire planet.  _

_ It is just not going to happen.  _

There was no way that he would ever love Lance McClain. 

  
  
  


Matt~

Matt walked up to Shiro and handed him a small glass of red wine. 

“Well he did it,” Matt said, handing Shiro the glass. 

“Yeah, I suppose he did,” Shiro murmured, taking a sip of the drink. “Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t worry me and give me more grey hair though.” 

Matt chuckled lightly, taking a drink of his own cup of wine. 

Shiro took another drink and paused to stare into the liquid, “Wait? Is this wine?” He asked. 

“No,” Matt said. “It’s grape juice.” 

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Oh, of course. My bad.” He held the glass out to Matt as though he wanted him to take the glass back. 

“Come on Shiro,” Matt said lightly, “You can take one cup of wine. You aren’t going to die.” 

Shiro scowled, “Yeah… but I don’t usually remember everything that happens and I don’t like that.” 

“Don’t worry,” Matt laughed softly, “I’ll keep Pidge from torturing you.” 

“Oh, thank you,” Shiro said sarcastically, “How do I know that you won’t let Keith torture me?” 

Matt smiled, “I won’t let anyone torture you.” 

Shiro took another drink of his wine. “Alright. One glass.” 

“One glass,” Matt agreed. 

Shiro looked at the group of their friends, all together and talking quietly. “Do you remember your initiation?” Shiro asked. 

“Yeah,” Matt said, starting to walk slowly with Shiro next to him. “I was super stealthy getting into Iverson’s office but then I tripped and knocked over his desk.”

“Did he find you?” Shiro asked, snorting with laughter. Matt couldn’t help but wish he could hear more of that laughter. It sounded so pure and full of life. 

“No, no he didn’t,” Matt said. “Surprisingly, he wasn’t around to hear the crash so I grabbed the pen and ran back to my friends to show them the pen and hide from the guards.”

“Has Iverson ever called  you out or asked who was in his office?” 

“Nope,” Matt sighed contentedly, “I guess I just got lucky. Your time in his office was pure gold though.” 

Shiro smiled, nodding along. “Yeah! You’re right. I just knocked on the door and walked in and asked Iverson for a pen.”

“Um, Mr. Iverson… sir?” Matt said in a mock pretentious voice, “I was… um… wondering if I could borrow a… um, pen… Sir?” 

“Why sure,” Shiro joined, imitating Principal Iverson by standing erect and closing one of his eyes. “May I ask the reason?” 

“Um…” Matt added, “I, uh, just needed a pen. Thank you, sir.” 

Shiro laughed. “Yeah, that was pretty great.” 

Matt smiled, laughing quietly himself. He loved Shiro laugh. 

Curious, Matt leaned over and looked into Shiro’s cup. It was nearly empty. 

Matt wondered if he could get Shiro drunk. He knew that was horrible but it didn’t take much alcohol and if he was drunk, then maybe Matt could get the courage to flirt with him. 

Eh, he’d have to drink more himself to do that, but it could work. 

He subtly altered his course to where the bottle of wine was by their other friends. 

“What are the others drinking?” Shiro asked suddenly. 

Matt laughed softly. He wouldn’t be surprised if Pidge or Keith had somehow managed to get a couple drinks of wine but nothing was that strong for them to drink. “Eh, I brought some sodas. Dr. Pepper, Fanta, stuff like that.”

“Okay,” Shiro said, nodding. 

Matt grabbed the bottle of wine and refilled his own cup and then turned to Shiro’s and poured some in. Miraculously, Shiro didn’t object. 

Smiling at his ninja skills, Matt turned and walked up to Keith with Shiro in tow.

“That was epic, Keith,” Matt commended. “Great job.” 

Keith snorted, “Well, it was a lot more difficult than your usual initiation.” 

Matt rubbed his head sheepishly, “Yeah well…” 

“You did say that you sneak into Iverson’s office all of the time, right? Why?” Lance asked

“Um yeah?” Keith said. “What else did you expect me to do when I forgot a pen or something?”

“Maybe ask someone to borrow a pen?” Hunk suggested. 

“Nah, too social,” Keith shrugged. “And too much effort.” 

“But…” Hunk murmured, “You only have to ask ‘Could I borrow a pen?’ Literally that’s it.” 

“But what if they say no?” Keith asked like he was asking ‘what is life?’ 

“You would get into so much less trouble though,” Lance said. “I mean… what would you do if Iverson caught you?” 

“I don’t know. Leave I guess.” 

“But…. what if the person you are asking for a pen says yes?” Lance theorized

“Realistically, what are the chances of that?” Keith asked.

“Very high,” Hunk said. 

“Well,” Lance said pensively. “I have been rejected for pens plenty of times so…” 

“See!” Keith cried. “This is my point. Lance is way better at… people,” He gestured like he was talking about a vague concept, “than I am. So if he was rejected, then I don’t stand a chance. Plus, Iverson’s office is just so much easier.” 

“Why would you risk being caught though?” Hunk asked. 

“I never said I was good at planning. And the adrenaline rush of sneaking past Iverson and maybe getting caught is always good to keep me awake for a bit.” 

Lance shook his head. 

Matt turned back from the conversation to face Shiro. He saw that Shiro had finished another cup of wine and Matt decided to fill it again. One more should do the trick. 

“Hey,” Matt said excitedly, “Do you want to go look at the cliff edge with me? There’s a bench we can sit at there…” 

“Sure!” Shiro said enthusiastically. 

“GUYS!” Pidge shouted behind them. “I’m gonna climb on top of this car and try to land on Keith’s motorcycle!” 

“Even better,” Keith said, “I’ll be driving it slowly.” 

“YES!” Pidge shouted. 

Matt looked at Shiro, expecting him to to be panicking over the team’s antics, but he was staring placantly at them. 

“Shouldn’t you be worried?” Matt asked. 

Shiro shrugged. “No matter what I tell them, it won’t change anything.” 

“Okay,” Matt said, trying to hide  his smile as they walked towards the cliff edge. 

Matt sat down first on the bench and Shiro sat next to him, but instead of sitting a fair distance away, like Matt had been expecting, Shiro sat next to him. Like  _ right  _ next to him. Matt would bump into him if he moved at all. 

He had to duck his head to hide his blush. He was sure that his eyes were wide in surprise and that his face was bright red. 

“The sunset is so pretty,” Shiro said, looking at the horizon in front of them. 

“What sunset?” Matt laughed, the sun had set about twenty minutes ago. “All I see are stars…” he looked at Shiro as he said it. His eyes just shone so brightly despite the lack of light. 

Shiro sighed, “But those can’t be the stars,” he pointed at the horizon. “You are.” 

Matt opened his mouth in surprise. He knew he was flushed bright red. He didn’t even know what to say. Shiro was looking at him. 

Shiro had… had hit on him. 

And his eyes were gleaming. As he looked at Matt’s. 

“I can see the stars in your eyes,” Shiro continued, his words sounding slightly slurred.

_ Right _ , Matt told himself,  _ He’s just drunk _ . 

Still, Matt wanted to brush those silvery-white bangs off of his forehead. He wanted to lean closer to Shiro. 

Was Shiro leaning closer to him? 

“Freckles,” Shiro giggled. 

“What?” Matt managed to squeak out. 

“I never noticed before… but you have freckles across your nose.” 

He was definitely leaning closer. Matt could feel his heart beating so fast he thought it was going to burst from his chest. His breath was quick and shallow. 

Shiro reached out and touched Matt’s nose with one finger, gently, tracing across whatever speckles covered his face. 

The touch sent an electric jolt down Matt’s spine. 

What was he doing? 

Shiro was so close. 

“They look like stars,” Shiro murmured softly. 

So close. 

Matt was holding his breath. He couldn’t speak. 

Could he feel Shiro’s breath on his face? Were they that close? 

Shiro hummed softly, his hand moving to the side of Matt’s face to cup it in his hand. His thumb brushed over Matt’s cheek. 

Matt felt frozen. His brain was caught on repeat like a broken record. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what Shiro was doing. 

Should he go with it? 

No. 

No he shouldn’t. 

Shiro was drunk. 

He wasn’t in his right mind. 

Even if he was being the most adorable idiot in the world. 

If he was in his right mind, he would never say those kinds of things. He wouldn’t want anything to do with Matt. He wouldn’t want to be close to him like this. 

Matt swallowed and was once more paralyzed. Shiro’s face was a mere few inches from his own. 

It would take nothing. 

No effort for Matt to lean forward and press his lips to Shiro’s. 

He could kiss Shiro and he knew that Shiro would go along with it. 

But he couldn’t. 

Shiro… the not-drunk Shiro wouldn’t go along with it. 

Matt blinked his eyes, finally able to move. 

Reluctantly, he started to turn his head to the side, away from Shiro. 

Suddenly, Shiro’s head fell onto Matt’s shoulder. Matt immediately stiffened. 

Shiro was… chuckling? 

“I was falling into the stars!” He laughed. 

Matt couldn’t laugh though, his mind too wrapped up in questions. What did that mean? What did Shiro’s actions from the whole night mean?? Was it all just a joke? 

“You know,” Shiro said, not moving his head from Matt’s shoulder but just turning his head so he could look at Matt, “I think I could jump off of this cliff better than Keith.” 

Matt paused, trying to process what Shiro had just said. 

“What?” he asked finally, softly. 

Shiro sat up and stood up from the bench. “My time has come. I must prove that Master is better than Apprentice.”

Shiro stood, facing Matt with his head facing the rest of their group and his hands on his hips in a Peter-Pan stance. 

“I hear my calling,” Shiro yelled and then charged out to where their friends were, laughing the whole way. 

“SHIRO!” Matt called tearing after him. He couldn’t help but smile as he chased Shiro, trying, and failing, to catch up. 

Shiro got into camp and charged towards Keith’s bike which was parked not far away from where the team was talking. 

“HI Keith!” Shiro said as he donned the helmet and got onto the motorcycle. “I need this.” 

“What?” Keith asked turning around and looking confused. 

Shiro started maniacally laughing as he took off down the pathway. 

“Don’t ask,” Matt said, breathless. 

“He’s going to do the jump,” Pidge said. “Shit. I have to film this  _ now _ .” 

“He took my bike though?” Keith asked. 

Lance put a hand on his shoulder. “I know how you feel, buddy. I’m often the third wheel too.” 

“What?” Keith asked Lance, trying to make sense of what he said. 

“I don’t know  _ what the fuck is happening  _ but LOOK!” Pidge shouted, their camera on and facing where Shiro was doing tight loops on the ground, creating a cloud of dirt and dust. 

Suddenly, Shiro diverted from his loops and took off towards the cliff edge. Matt was pretty sure he heard Shiro yelling “YEEEEET!!!!” the whole time but he couldn’t be sure. 

“Did he?” Pidge asked.

“Yes,” Keith affirmed. 

They all ran to the edge to watch Shiro as he raced down. Matt was awed at how fast he was going. At how he was weaving in and out of the rocks so easily. Keith had been good… but Shiro was  _ flawless _ . 

Matt watched as Shiro zipped towards a large rock, climbing it to lift off into the air. The motorcycle left the rock’s edge and Shiro was flying out in empty space. 

“Oh god,” Hunk whispered.

Matt could distantly hear him yelling “FUCK MY LIFE!” as he performed a 180 flip on the motorcycle and managed a perfect landed backwards, facing the team. 

Pidge and Lance burst into laughter. 

“Yeet!” Pidge yelled, “Fantasy Dad is schooling us!” 

Keith cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled “STOP IT YOU FUCKING SHOW OFF!” 

Matt could almost feel the cocky grin that he knew adorned Shiro’s face. 

And then he was off again, zipping  _ up _ the cliff this time. 

“GUYS!” Hunk, the only one concerned with safety, yelled, “Shiro’s coming up fast. We have to get out of the way.” 

“Nah,” Pidge said. “I want this action shot.” 

Hunk grabbed them by their collar and dragged them to the side followed by Lance and Keith and Matt. Though Keith and Matt had walked willingly. 

The bike reached the top and Shiro was once again thrust up into the air. This time, Matt could clearly hear him as he screamed “FUCK THE SYSTEM I AM INVINCIBLE!” 

“You can be anything you wish to be,” Pidge said with a laugh. 

“I don’t think he can be invincible,” Hunk said slowly. 

Shiro crashed back to the ground with the bike,  _ somehow  _ landing perfectly. 

That made him even more amazingly perfect in Matt’s opinion. 

“I think he’s doing a pretty good job at living,” Pidge said. 

“GREAT JOB, SHIRO!” Matt yelled. 

“GO DAD!” Lance chorused. 

“Yep, Fantasy Dad did great,” Pidge agreed. 

“ENCORE!” Lance shouted. “GO AGAIN. DO A FLIP.” 

Shiro looked at them, “Again? Alright! Sure. Why not? I love experiencing death!” 

Before they could protest, he got back onto the bike and took off down the cliff again screaming the whole way. 

“Damn,” Lance whispered. 

“SHIRO! DON’T YOU DARE CRASH MY BIKE!” Keith shouted. 

“What about Shiro’s life?” Hunk asked. 

“Just believe in his invincibility,” Pidge said. 

“Yeah, he does stupid shit all of the time and is just fine,” Keith grumbled. “But my bike…” 

“The bike will be fine,” Matt said. “Just look at how fine Shiro is.” 

Shiro was screaming more as he executed a perfect front over back flip and managed to land on the wheels. “YEET I CAN’T DIE!” Shiro screamed. 

“YES YOU CAN!” Hunk screamed back. “PLEASE BE SAFE.” 

“Fuck safety,” Pidge said. “Look at how much fun he is having.” 

“Yeah, shit,” Lance said. “I can’t wait to get drunk. It seems like so much fun.” 

“I do  _ not _ want to know what you would be like drunk,” Keith muttered. 

“Aw, but I might get cuddly?” Lance wrapped an arm around Keith, leaning into him. “Or I might realize that I hate you.”

Keith shied out of Lance’s grip, scowling. “Exactly. It would be awful.”

“I think you mean awesome,” Lance corrected.

“No, I don’t.”

At that moment, Shiro appeared in front of them, landing with a cloud of dust after performing another perfect flip. 

Matt wanted to yell how in love he was at that moment. 

“OFF!” Keith yelled. “NO more beating me.” 

“Well he  _ was  _ better,” Matt said. 

“Matt, fuck off,” Keith growled,  “He’s been driving a motorcycle for years and he is drunk. I’m not.”

“Shiro! You did great!” Lance yelled. 

“Off,” Keith demanded. “Bike needs a rest.” 

“But I haven’t crashed yet,” Shiro whined. 

“Quit while you’re ahead.” Pidge said. 

“Is your bike named Bike?” Lance asked. 

“Yes,” Keith said defiantly as he grabbed the helmet out of Shiro’s hands and let it hang on the handle bars. 

“Are you kidding me?” Lance snorted. “We can think of  _ something  _ better.” 

“Bike is a sufficient name for a bike,” Keith said. 

“I guess if you were four and had the brain of a kindergartener?” Lance argued. “Please. Let’s name the bike something cool like Firestorm or Lightning!” 

“No,” Keith said blatantly. 

“What about Nebulous or Kosmo or something,” Lance suggested. 

“Kosmo the bike,” Hunk said with meek enthusiasm. 

“Yes!” Pidge agreed. “Kosmo the bike!” 

Matt shook his head, laughing at the antics of his friends. He wanted to join in on their antics but he was more distracted and focused on Shiro. Shiro was smiling and stumbling away from the bike. He tripped on a rock and fell forward. 

Without thinking, Matt stumbled forward and caught him. 

“You okay Shiro?” Matt asked softly. 

“Yep!” Shiro said loudly. “I’m great.” 

Matt stood him up, trying not to focus on their points of contact. 

When Shiro tried to take another step, he fell forward again. Matt caught him and laughed softly. “Shiro… you only had three cups of wine!” 

“L-low battery!” Shiro said in an imitation of Baymax from Big Hero 6. 

Matt laughed, holding Shiro up with him. “Alright. I’ll take you home.” 

“Ch-charging…. Charging station.” 

“Fine. I’ll take you to your charging station you big idiot. I can’t believe you can do perfect flips on a motorcycle but you can’t even walk in a straight line.” 

“Matt,” Shiro said, gripping his shoulder to stare into his eyes, “You should know that I don’t ‘straight’.” 

What.

_ What? _

_ No,  _ Matt told himself _ , He’s just joking. He’s drunk and joking _ . 

Matt would not get his hopes up. He wouldn’t think that everything would work out because  _ it wouldn’t.  _ He knew that. He knew he wasn’t destined to have anything great happen for him. 

So this was just a messed up moment in the universe. The universe making fun of him. Yet again.

He really wished he could properly insult the universe and be like  _ “Fuck you Universe. You suck!”  _

“Let’s just get you home,” Matt told Shiro instead. 

“HEY KEITH!” He yelled.

“Yeah?” Keith yelled back. 

“Shiro’s wasted so I’m taking him back to your place okay?” 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Keith called.

“BYE FANTASY MOTORBIKE DAD!” Lance yelled. 

“Thanks for the blackmail!” Pidge siad. 

Shiro’s face twisted in confusion, “But Pidge… it isn’t blackmail because it is cool and it happened.”

Pidge laughed, “You aren’t going to think that tomorrow.” 

“Tomorrow is already in the past,” Shiro grumbled. “Look to the bright new present.” 

“What?” Hunk asked. 

“Don’t question,” Keith said. “Just don’t. I tried to once and it didn’t end well.”

Matt waved goodbye to them one last time, slightly concerned with leaving without proper adult supervision, “NO ONE LEAVE THIS AREA WITHOUT HUNK OR WITH THE INTENT TO HEAD HOME.” 

Matt could hear a chorus of affirmations. That was satisfying enough. They would  _ probably  _ be okay. 

Matt stumbled with Shiro towards the car that he knew Shiro had driven. As he tried to get Shiro to sit inside, Shiro shouted “WHeeeee!” in a fairly good Baymax impression. 

Matt started driving and, at first, Shiro was quiet. Probably lost in thought. Matt didn’t complain though because it gave him a change to  _ exist  _ next to Shiro. He knew they would never be together… but it was nice to dream. 

“Matt?” Shiro whispered quietly, like something was wrong. 

“What is it?” Matt said, concern edging into his voice. 

“Why did he have to die?” 

“Excuse me?” Matt asked. Who had died? What was going on? Was everything okay? 

“He was so brave when he ran back into that building.” 

“Who?” Matt asked, genuinely concerned. 

“Tadashi…” Shiro whimpered. Matt glanced over at him and saw tears on the edge of his eyes. 

“From Big Hero 6?” 

“Yes!” Shiro cried. “He died! And he is so much like me! I relate deeply and he died, Matt.” 

Matt smiled. “Yeah, you do remind me of Tadashi.” 

“I KNOW! And Keith is Hiro. When I watched that in theatres I  _ CRIED _ .” Shiro had tears streaming down the side of his face. Matt wanted so,  _ so  _ desperately to wipe them off. 

“Tadashi dying ripped a hole in my heart. A  _ HOLE _ , Matt!” Shiro shouted, clenching his fists, tears still coming out of his eyes. 

“I know,” Matt tried to say. 

“But we didn’t even get to  _ know  _ him!” Shiro cried in outrage. 

“We got those first few scenes?” 

“That is  _ nothing _ . How are we supposed to care for him without any screen time? Matt, when he came on, I had high hopes. And those hopes were  _ crushed.  _ They were crushed like my soul!” 

Matt slowed at a red light and put the car into park. No one was around anyway. 

“Shiro… I’m sorry,” Matt told him, leaning over and wrapping his arms around Shiro. Shiro relaxed into Matt’s hold quickly. “Tadashi was a great character and it wasn’t fair that he had to die so soon.” 

“I know!” Shiro said softly. “It really wasn’t. And it hurt.” 

Matt patted his back, pressing his face into Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro was just so warm and comforting. 

“Matt… the light is green.” 

“Oh,” Matt said, drawing back away from Shiro and putting the car into drive. He started going slowly.

“Thank you for sharing in my pain, Matt,” Shiro said. “I’m really grateful to have such a good… friend like you.” 

Matt wondered why he hesitated before saying ‘friend.’ What  _ was  _ Matt to Shiro? Was he something else? A brother? 

Matt didn’t dare hope that Shiro could be thinking romantically. Matt wasn’t that lucky, and he knew that it wouldn’t work out that well for him. 

Plus… other people were the ones who got happy endings. 

Other people were the ones who got the dates. The ones who were out like Lance and Keith. Matt still couldn’t bring himself to even start to decipher how he felt. He only knew he had a  _ stupid stupid _ crush on Shiro. 

“Um…” Matt stuttered, “I’m, uh, glad to have you as a friend as well.” 

Shiro leaned over and rested his head on Matt’s shoulder, despite the fact that Matt was driving and  _ couldn’t deal _ with that. 

“Shiro!” Matt spluttered. “I’m driving!” 

Shiro groaned but sat back upright. Thankfully. “But Ma _ tt… _ you are so warm and cuddly.” 

Matt flushed bright red but continued on, keeping his eyes determinedly on the road in front of them. 

“I just want to hug you!” Shiro whined. 

Matt didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, they were pulling into Shiro and Keith’s apartment complex so Matt didn’t have to answer directly. 

“I’ll help you up the stairs and get settled in before I leave,” Matt told Shiro opening the door like a chauffeur for him to exit the car. 

Shiro got out and they had started walking towards the stairs when Shiro draped his arms around Matt and squeezed his body close to Matt. “So warm,” he whispered. 

“S-S-SHIRO!” Matt stuttered, his voice cracking as he tried to leap away. Shiro only tightened his grip. 

“Maaatttttt, my heart is cold and dead. I need warmth.” 

“I have to climb the stairs!” 

“I will be behind you! Or you could carry me.” 

Matt laughed nervously, “I cannot carry you. Not up stairs.” 

Shiro pouted. 

Then his arms moved from around Matt. Matt turned around in confusion and then suddenly he wasn’t on the ground anymore. Shiro had picked him up. 

Shiro had  _ picked him up _ . 

Matt was being carried like a princess. 

A fucking princess. 

“SHIRO!” he yelled. “What are you doing?” 

“Holding the warmth close to my heart,” Shiro said simply. 

Matt’s face was bright red. For one, he was embarrassed that Shiro could pick him up. For another, he didn’t trust drunk Shiro going up stairs while carrying him. And finally, he felt  _ waaaay  _ too intimate with Shiro. 

“Shiro, please put me down?” Matt didn’t know if he did or did not want to be put down. 

“But… one flight of stairs?” Shiro pleaded. 

His face was so close to Matt’s. His eyes were pleading with Matt. He was just too adorable. Matt had to nod. He didn’t have choice. 

“Yes!” Shiro yelled taking off up the stairs. Matt grabbed onto Shiro and clung to him, terror wracking through his body. 

But he also felt safe. He was in Shiro’s arms and Shiro had no intention of letting him go. He had no intention of letting Matt get hurt. 

Matt found he was smiling. 

Through his cries of terror… 

When they reached the first landing, Shiro set Matt down gently. Matt grabbed his shoulder to get his footing. 

“See?” Shiro whispered, “Wasn’t that fun?” 

Matt laughed lightly, “Yeah. It was fun. In a terrifying way. Is that what it feels like to ride the motorcycle?” 

“Eh, yeah?” Shiro said. “Sort of like that just a lot different in how fast it is…. I could take you for a ride sometime though?” 

He phrased it like a question and Matt couldn’t help but think that Shiro was asking him out of a date. But that was absurd. 

“Um… sure?” Matt agreed hoping he didn't’ sound too nervous. 

Shiro smiled from ear to ear. “Yay! I can’t wait!” He said excitedly. 

Matt smiled back and chuckled lightly. “Let’s get you home, you adorable idiot.” 

“Okay,” Shiro said in a much too happy voice. Yet it was still adorable in Matt’s opinion. 

They climbed the rest of the steps and Matt took the key from Shiro so that it wouldn’t take them three years to open the locked door. 

Matt had been to Shiro’s house a couple times before when they were studying or just hanging out… but he had never been over at 9:30 at night and with Shiro while he was drunk. Everything felt so weird. So out of place. Like Matt shouldn’t be there. Like he was invading in Shiro’s house. 

Shiro spun around with his arms outstretched and said “So this is my house where I have all of my things. It’s where I eat  and sleep… and live….” 

“Shiro,” Matt laughed, “You sound like you are six!” 

“Aren’t I?” 

“That you are,” Matt smiled. “Now let’s get you to bed!” 

“I’m almost seven though!!” 

“Five more months and fourteen days.”  _ Wait.  _ Matt hadn’t meant to say that. It wasn’t like he kept track of Shiro’s birthday or anything weird like that? His seventh birthday was just a big deal! 

Matt dragged him to his room and told him to go brush his teeth. “Aw… okay.” Shiro had grumbled, pouting like he really was six. 

Matt was starting to wish that he had brought his phone up so he could record Shiro. But… at the same time, the experience itself was good enough of memories.

Matt stayed, leaning against the wall, while Shiro brushed his teeth. After he was done brushing his teeth, Matt left the room so Shiro could change to go to sleep. A part of Matt just wanted to crash on the couch… The part of him that wanted to take care of Shiro when he was hungover in the morning. The part of him that wanted to hold him close and keep smiling and laughing with him. 

“Alright,” Shiro called and Matt entered again. He found Shiro wearing a Big Hero 6 T-shirt with everyone on the front of it. The pajama pants he was wearing matched the shirt with little waving Baymax-es covering them. 

Matt laughed, “Of course you would have Big Hero 6 Pajamas.”

“Shh… These are special. Don’t tell anyone.” Shiro said, sounding so concerned about Matt telling. 

“I  _ promise  _ I won’t tell.” 

“Yay,” Shiro sighed. 

Matt half wanted Shiro to be holding a stuffed Baymax toy like he was going to hug it to sleep. 

Shiro looked at Matt and said softly, “Would you tuck me in?” 

“What?” Matt balked. “Shiro, you know you aren’t really six, right?” 

“Just come over here!” Shiro said. 

Matt walked over to where Shiro was laying in his bed and said sarcastically, “Okay? What do you want? A goodnight kiss?” 

“Yes.”

“No… wait. I was joking,” Matt panicked. 

“But… I need my warmth.” 

“What?” Matt asked, confused as to what Shiro was saying. And then he watched as Shiro sat up and pulled Matt towards him, wrapping his arms around Matt almost protectively. 

“Timber!” Shiro yelled as he fell backwards with Matt next to him. 

“There we go!” Shiro said, laying back down with Matt still in his arms. 

Matt couldn’t see Shiro’s face, but he could feel the tight grip that he had on Matt. 

Matt couldn’t even believe what was happening. 

It wouldn’t register in his brain for a minute… and then it hit him. 

Shiro was hugging  _ him _ as he fell asleep. 

Shiro. Hugging. 

No, no, Matt wouldn’t be the stuffed animal that Shiro could hug. He had to get home. Shiro couldn’t wake up to find that he had been holding Matt. 

“Shiro!” Matt spluttered, “You— what are you doing?” 

“You are my warmth!” Shiro replied calmly, sleepily. “I love my warmth.” 

Matt closed his eyes, swallowing. He tried to ignore the fact that drunk Shiro had basically just said he loved Matt. “Shiro, you need to let  _ me _ go home to sleep.” 

“Sleep here,” Shiro sighed. 

“No!” Matt yelped. “I have to go to my home.” 

Shiro didn’t respond. 

“Shiro?” 

“Mmh?” Shiro mumbled. 

“Please, let me go so I can sleep?” 

Shiro just sighed and nestled his head into the back of Matt’s head. 

“Shiro?” 

Matt could hear and feel soft breaths escaping Shiro’s lips. 

He was asleep. 

Matt was stuck. If he moved too forcefully, he would wake Shiro up but Shiro’s grip was too strong to be able to just weasel out of. 

So Matt stayed. He refused to fall asleep but he stayed. He stared at the wall, scowling the whole time. 

Shiro was behind him. 

He was basically spooning Matt. 

And Matt couldn’t do a thing. 

He was stuck. 

He could feel Shiro’s every movement as he would nestle his head down into his pillow or twist himself around slightly, still always holding onto Matt. 

Matt wanted to leave. He felt  _ way _ too intimate. He felt like he shouldn’t be there. 

Which he knew he shouldn’t. 

But… Shiro wanted him there.

Drunk Shiro. 

Flirtatious Shiro. 

_ Ugh! _ Matt thought,  _ Why does he have to be like this? _

He could feel Shiro’s soft breaths that escaped from his nose. They rustled the hairs on Matt’s neck. 

Matt started to count the seconds until he was able to be free. He didn’t know when Keith would be back— probably pretty late— but he figured that was the best time to escape. Keith could help extricate Matt. 

_ Please come home, Keith _ .

Finally, Matt heard the door open. “ _ KEITH, _ ” Matt hissed. 

“Who’s there?” Keith asked suspiciously. “If you are anyone other than Mothman then I have four knives and I am NOT afraid to use them!” His voice softened, “If that is you Mothman… then will you marry me?” 

Matt was stunned. “Keith… What the actual fuck?”

“Oh. It’s you.” Keith said, sounding almost disappointed as he walked into Shiro’s room. 

“Gee, thanks. I see where I stand in your social life. Anyway, get me out of here!” Matt whispered as loudly as he dared. 

“Wait. Matt? Why are you here?”Keith asked. 

“May I ask why you have four knives?” Matt asked. 

“I like knives but… you… and Shiro…” 

“Yes!” Matt shouted, “Get—” 

“You two are? But…” Keith spluttered, looking all around. “But I thought that Shiro was ace?” 

“What?” Matt asked. “I mean… same but… oh.” He realized what things must look like. “Keith… no.” 

“Nope, this is great,” Keith said, pulling out his phone and taking pictures of them. 

Matt used one of his half imprisoned arms to flip Keith off.

“Now shush and free me! I want to go to sleep!” Matt cried out. 

“But…” Keith said, tapping on his chin. “This is so beautiful and precious.” 

“If you send that to Pidge….. I swear!” 

“Oup. Too late,” Keith said. 

“Oh great,” Matt moaned. “I do not want to suffer the wrath of the Pidgeon. It is not going to be a good time.” 

“But that’s not my problem,” Keith countered. “You are in my house and you look like you and Shiro  were together tonight. This is fantastic.” 

“Let me get out of this? Please?” Matt asked. 

“Hmm. What do I get in return?” Keith inquired. 

Matt didn’t know what he could bargain. “Um… I know! I can hack Pidge’s phone and transfer the photos to my own phone and then delete them so they won’t be able to use those photos against you.

“Hmm. Okay. Deal.” 

“Yes!” Matt shouted quietly, with excitement. “Free me from this torture!” 

“You have to  _ promise _ to delete all of those pictures though,” Keith said to Matt. 

“Alright, yes I promise. I just want to get out of Shiro’s arms.” 

“Okay,” Keith said grabbing a pillow as he walked over to where Matt and Shiro were. He picked up Shiro’s arm and pulled it upwards until Matt could duck out. Keith slipped the pillow into Shiro’s grasp and instantly Shiro was hugging it to himself. 

“ _ My god, _ ” Matt whispered. “I never realized how standing could be so freeing. I am so glad to be able to stand on my own!” 

“Yeah yeah,” Keith grumbled. “Now make sure to delete those photos.” 

“How has Shiro not woken up yet?” Matt asked. “I wouldn’t have pegged him to be a heavy sleeper.”

“He’s not,” Keith said. “That’s the alcohol.”

“He didn’t even have that much to drink, though,” Matt laughed. 

“Yeah, that’s Shiro,” Keith sighed. “He has zero tolerance. It’s really funny but he also won’t remember anything that happened.” 

“He won’t?” Matt asked. “I thought he still remembered most everything.” 

“Nope. It’s pretty great.” 

Matt felt rather relieved. He wouldn’t have to worry about Shiro asking him why he had gone along with Shiro when he was trying to get Matt to do weird things, like be princess carried up the stairs. 

Matt smiled. He kind of liked that he was the only one who would remember all of the insanity. But that thought also made him kind of sad because he couldn’t share these memories with Shiro later. 

A part of Matt wished that Keith had never come to free him from Shiro’s grip so that Matt had been forced to stay there for the whole night. Matt wanted to be there for Shiro when he woke up. He wanted to be there for hungover Shiro. He wanted to tell stories of what happened while Shiro was drunk. He wanted to stay by Shiro’s side. 

But he also knew that with Keith, that would be too awkward. He couldn’t ask to stay on the couch or anything. He had to go home. 

“I should probably be heading back…” Matt trailed off, looking at Shiro. 

“Okay,” Keith said emotionlessly. 

Matt turned around and started walking out the door when he heard “Are those his Baymax Pjs?” 

“Yeah?” Matt responded, confused. 

Keith whistled low, “Wow. He never wears those in front of other people. Not even with me.”

Matt couldn’t help but blush, his cheeks heating up as he turned towards the door. Why did Shiro have to be so adorable and so out of Matt’s league? Why did he have to be probably straight and not care about Matt like that at all? Matt knew they were great friends but… that was all they would be. Nothing more. 

Matt knew that. 

And yet it still kind of hurt to leave Shiro’s apartment and head home by himself. 

Matt walked sullenly down the stairs and got in his car. He just wished that he could tell Shiro all of the things on his mind. But Matt would never have the courage for that.

And he and Shiro would just be friends. 

Nothing more.

 

Pidge~

Pidge had been looking at their phone for the past forty-five minutes when Matt opened the door and walked in. 

“Ah,” Pidge said, looking up from their phone momentarily, “I see that my brother has returned. How sad. Well, brother, did you have a  _ fun _ evening?” Pidge winked at him just for good measure. 

Matt stopped in his tracks to glare at Pidge. “Pidge,” he said, “You know that A: I’m not out. B: I’m ace. And C: that I would never do that.” 

“And be back so soon,” Pidge added.

Matt rolled his eyes and walked into his room, dropping off his bag on his bed. He returned to Pidge and sat down on the floor in front of them. “I need to talk,” Matt said. 

“Okay, talk.” Pidge commanded. 

“So…. I’m really gay for Shiro.” 

“No shit, Sherlock,” Pidge rolled their eyes. 

“Yeah,” Matt sighed, “Well, he’s adorable.”

“What’d he do?” 

“He fucking princess carried me. Up the stairs.” 

Pidge snorted imagining that. It was surprisingly easy to imagine. 

“And… when I was tucking him into bed…” Matt sighed, bowing his head down to hide his very obvious blush. 

“Oooh,” Pidge breathed quietly. “What happened in the bed?” 

“PIDGE!” Matt shouted. “No, just  _ no! _ ” 

Pidge raised their hands in surrender and sat back, watching Matt. They had gotten the picture that Keith had sent not too long ago and it was  _ amazing _ . And it was just so much fun teasing him.

“When I was tucking him in,” Matt continued, “he grabbed me from behind and pulled me towards him. And then he just cuddled me like I was a pillow or something.” 

“Interesting,” Pidge said, sounding bored. 

“Pidge! This is serious!” Matt cried indignantly. “Shiro fucking cuddled me as he fell asleep! I needed Keith to rescue me.” 

“Because you were in great distress being held by Shiro…” Pidge muttered. 

“Yes. I was in gay distress!” Matt told them. “I needed help and I didn’t know what to do. Keith saved me from Shiro’s grip.” 

“So… what’s the problem? Pidge asked. 

“Well the problem is that I am in love with Shiro and yet he’s probably straight and he wouldn’t want to date his best friend anyway!” 

Pidge snorted.  _ Yeah…. Shiro’s as straight as a cooked spaghetti noodle.  _

“Matt, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you are making it out to seem.” 

“But Pidge! You didn’t see the way his granite grey eyes were sparkling in the sunset! You didn’t see the way those adorably white bangs rustled in the wind. You didn’t see the small smile crinkles that were around his eyes every time he smiled.” 

“First, that’s gay,” Pidge commented, “And second, no, I didn’t see all of that because I don’t have a giant-ass crush on Shiro. You’re the one with a crush the size of the sun contained in that small body.”

“I’m not that small! I’m taller than you.” 

Pidge stood up on top of the couch. “Well, now you’re not. But, is being taller than me really that much of an accomplishment?” 

“I am taller than Keith too,” Matt protested. 

“Ooh. Such an achievement. I should give you a trophy.” 

“But seriously, Pidge,” Matt said as Pidge flopped back down onto the couch. “What do you think my chances with someone like Shiro are? What do you think Shiro would even do if I asked him out?”

“I think in this case, your chances are pretty high.” 

“What?” Matt balked. “What makes you say that?” 

“Um. Everything about the way he acts around you?” Pidge suggested. 

“But he was drunk! What would he be like if I asked him while he was sober?” 

Pidge sighed, “Matt. You  _ do _ realize that alcohol removes how well your brain thinks things through and generally pumps up your courage. So it isn’t like Shiro just  _ decided _ to hug you as he was going to sleep. Sober Shiro would want to and Drunk Shiro just does it.” 

“What?” Matt asked. “No… no. Shiro doesn’t like me… like that. He’s out of my league. He’s not gay!” 

Pidge shook their head. “Matt… the next time you say that I’m heading off to bed. Now, please, just calm down. It sounds to me like nothing really happened.” 

“But  _ Everything  _ happened!” Matt argued. 

“Okay, well,” Pidge muttered, “if you aren’t going to function, then I’m heading off to bed.” 

“I’ll be functional,” Matt said to them. 

Pidge nodded. “Okay. So what are you going to do? We all know that Shiro blacks out while drunk so he won’t remember a thing. Are you going to tell him?” 

“Um… yes? No? I don’t know! What should I do?” 

“Calm,” Pidge said slowly and calmly. “What do  _ you  _ think you should do?” 

“I.. I don’t think I should tell him. At least not yet. I don’t want to make things weird for us.”

“Sounds like a sound plan, just do NOT make a mess out of yourself tomorrow. Act completely natural.” 

Matt sighed, “Alright. I’ll do that. Thanks Pidge. I’m going to go to sleep.” 

“Make sure to journal down everything! I love reading your diary!” 

Matt sighed and shook his head, heading into his room. 

Pidge smiled. They both hoped that Matt would be able to act normal for his own sake, and that he would make a complete fool out himself. 

Knowing Matt, Pidge knew that it would probably be both.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are wondering, Lance's shirt says "I'm Bi-utiful You're Beautiful"  
> Pidge's says "I've got an ace up my sleeve."  
> Hunk's says "PANcakes I (heart) PANcakes"
> 
> Pidge gets them all their shirts when they come out to them.   
> I'm really proud of the art in this chapter and I think the overall story turned out humorous and entertaining. If you've read any of my other works, you know that... I don't do "funny" that well. Well... I either have HARD angst or funny fluff. Or sometimes both! 
> 
> Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter!! I'll get the next one out as soon as I can. :)


	3. Poor Pathetic Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro has an immense headache and doesn't remember much of the previous night.   
> (And the team plays D&D finally).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uggghhhh I'm sorry to anyone who follows this fic that I'm so late in updating. School is just kicking my butt. I do work on this fic a lot but I wasn't working on this chapter. I was actually working on some Klance stuff for upcoming chapters so yay!! (They are awkward adorable muffins).   
> And, to be fair, this chapter is quite a bit longer than the others. Unintentionally. :P  
> First chapter with the group chat as well! I have multiple chapters with group chats but this is the first being published! (Future ones have fun names but Keith made this one so it isn't as fun of a name).   
> Also, I didn't have time/energy to do art. :'(   
> I do have some already prepared for the next chapter though!

Shiro~

Shiro opened his eyes drearily, blinking as the sharply bright light hit his face. 

_ Noo _ , Shiro thought to himself. He didn’t want to open his eyes to that horrible light. 

“Shiro?” Keith was calling. 

“What,” Shiro groaned, refusing to open his eyes. 

“We should leave in five minutes or so. Are you ready?”

“For what?” Shiro mumbled, too tired to think about what he was doing.

“For school? Y’know…. Don’t you have Astronomy today?”

Shiro made himself roll over, squinting to get his eyes opened. 

His head was pounding and his stomach felt like it was sloshing with acid… which it was… being a stomach. 

He couldn’t think.

He rubbed his eyes absently, sitting up yawning. He blinked and ran a hand through his short hair, trying to work up the motivation to stand. He picked up his phone, which was on the bedside table, and clicked it open to check the time. 

7:06

_ Shit _ . Shiro swore in his head. He bounded to his feet and took two large steps towards his closet to get dressed before his legs gave out on him and he fell flat onto his face with a loud thud. 

“Shiro?” he heard Keith yell. “Are you okay in there?” 

Shiro didn’t respond. His face hurt. His head hurt. Everything hurt. 

He heard the door open and turned his head slightly to see Keith standing in the doorway. The hall lights behind Keith were too bright. He closed his eyes to try to settle the pounding in his head. 

“Shiro!” Keith said, sounding like he was trying to suppress laughter. “What are you doing on the floor?” 

“I died,” Shiro grumbled into the carpet, refusing to get up. 

Keith didn’t make any remarks like Shiro had expected him to, instead he knelt down next to Shiro and offered him his hand. “Hey, buddy. Come on, let’s stand you up.”

Keith helped Shiro to stand up and held him steady once they were standing. 

“I’m not surprised,” Keith said with a chuckle, “Matt got you pretty drunk last night.” 

_ Really _ ? Shiro thought. The idea surprised him. He had a vague, blurry memory of Matt handing him more wine last night even when he knew he should be done. 

“Did…” Shiro started to ask and then decided against the idea. “What happened last night?” 

Keith sighed and rubbed the back of his head… “Ummm… well… you got drunk… and then Matt took you… um home…” 

Even in Shiro’s delirious state, he knew that Keith wasn’t telling the full truth.There is no way that Pidge and Matt and Lance would have settled for just letting Shiro act a little loopy. Instead they would prompt and force Shiro to act like a lunatic because he wouldn’t be opposed to it. 

“Keith… what did I do?” Shiro asked seriously. 

“Just… I’ll just let Pidge show you. That would be way easier.” 

“What?” Shiro moaned. “Pidge  _ videoed _ me?” 

“I did too but it was a really bad video so I deleted it.” Keith stared off at the wall. Shiro was pretty sure that there was something Keith wasn’t telling him but his head hurt too much to bother with prying. If he had done something stupid, he was sure that he would hear about it from the others.

Shiro sighed, “I need to get ready. I’ll be out in just a moment.” 

Keith gave him a worried look but Shiro just waved him off, “I’m okay, Keith. I can stand on my own. I’ll just have… a bit of a rough day.” 

“Okay…” Keith conceded reluctantly. “Tell me if you need help.” 

Shiro waited for him to leave and then he stood up and walked to his closet to get clothes. Even just the thought of tying a tie hurt his head. Shiro decided that he could  _ not _ deal with dressing nicely. Buttoning polos, tying ties… he couldn’t even do it in his head. 

Instead he grabbed a black t-shirt that he suspected once had a decal on the front but was now so faded that the whole thing just looked black. Then, looking at his pants, he decided that he really didn’t want to deal with wearing nice clothes and that he really didn’t care. 

He walked out of his room with his phone in his hand and headed towards the door. 

“Shiro….” Keith said slowly. “You… you can’t wear yoga pants… to teach…” 

Shiro glanced at him and grabbed the keys, ready to head out. 

“And… Shoes?” Keith said, sounding genuinely concerned. 

“Right,” Shiro sighed walking over to the closet and pulling out his pair of moccasins. He did  _ not _ want to tie shoes or wear those uncomfortable dressy ones. 

“Shiro....!” Keith said louder. 

“What.” Shiro deadpanned. He reached onto the counter and grabbed a pair of sunglasses, donning them as he turned back towards the door. 

“Shiro… I’m not going to— you know what? Let me drive. Scratch that, Give me the keys, I’m driving,” Keith snatched the keys from Shiro’s hand, deciding not to argue with Shiro’s fashion choices. 

Shiro got into the passengers side of the car while Keith got in on the driver’s side. Keith checked his phone one more time and then turned it off and set it to the side, starting the car to take them to school. 

Shiro dozed for most of the drive, his head tilted back and pounding with every thought. 

Keith rubbed his shoulder gently when they got there and Shiro opened his eyes, hissing at the light of the sun through his sunglasses. 

“Come on, old man,” Keith was smiling warmly as he pushed Shiro out the door. “Time for you to get to class.” 

Shiro turned around to head off and then he was pulled back by Keith once again. “And here,” Keith said, “You might want this.” 

He handed Shiro his bag of teaching supplies.

“Keith…” Shiro said softly. 

“I also put some fruit and water in there. Please drink water. We both know you are dehydrated.” 

Shiro nodded, feeling like a lectured two-year old. 

“Can’t I just burn this though?” Shiro asked as he looked down at the surplus of books and looseleaf papers. “And maybe myself? My brain feels like it is on fire.” 

“No, Shiro,” Keith rolled his eyes. “You have to pretend that you want to be the responsible teacher in class.” 

“In sweatpants,” Shiro added absently. 

“Yeah…” Keith sighed. “Just… good luck.

Shiro waved to him and turned off towards where he thought his class was. 

“This way!” Keith called pointing Shiro down the opposite hallway. 

Shiro didn’t respond. He refused to look at Keith. 

It would be fine. He would be fine. He didn’t have to worry….

He rubbed at his blurry eyes. 

Yeah…. He didn’t have to worry about his class….probably.

~~~

Keith has made a chat.  **Fantasy Dad**

Keith: hey, guys… Just fyi, Shiro’s really out of it.

Hunk: Oh no! Is he okay? 

Keith: Yeah…? 

Lance: well… after last night I would ve suprised if he wasntokay

Pidge: AND I RECORDED TI

Keith: so you DO still have the video? 

Pidge: why wouldnt I

Pidge: what has I done to make you have such little faith

Hunk: Has? 

Lance:  they has the precioues. they must treasure the preciuses and keeps the preciouses away from the nasty blackmail deleteres. 

Pidge: Yes. Wes likes the blackmails. 

Pidge: they are the preicouses. 

Hunk: Guys. Stop sounding like Gollum.

Keith: Sméagol is just a misunderstood character who needs to be comforted.

Pidge: KEith…. Pls dont tell me you have a fucking crush on that thing

Keith: first: ew

Keith: second: no

Keith: third: my love is Mothman.

Keith: fourth: duh

Lance: how long is this going to keep going? 

Keith: fifth: you should know that I relate very deeply to Sméagol’s loneliness. 

Hunk: Once again, are you okay? And can I give you a hug? 

Allura: What is going on here? 

Keith: Shiro is so hungover. 

Lance: dude… how bad’s his headache

Keith: he woke up twentyfive mins ago

Keith: and fell on his face. 

Matt: Who fell on whos face? 

Keith: he doesnt look human either. 

Matt: Guysssss what kind of shitty group chat is this this time

Pidge: the normal

Lance: yeah you really shouldnt’ be suprised by us anymore

Keith: to answer your previous question: Shiro

Matt: Is he okay?

Pidge: ;)

Keith: define okay? 

Matt: oh god

Matt: what’s wrong

Keith: he’s hungover.

Matt: howwww?

Allura: because he has literally zero tolerance. 

Matt: I drank more than him and he literally got off the walls drunk and hungover?

Lance: yes, I would like to thank you for that. 

Lance: fantasy dad was so beautiful last night. 

Hunk: He was being Reckless! 

Lance:  i know

Lance: wasnt it amazing? 

Pidge: yep. 

Pidge: I only wish I could have recorded what happened on the way back to his houes

Allura: so… Shiro got drunk?

Lance: what happened on the way back? 

Pidge: Ya kudos to Matt for making him drunk

Keith: Lance, I don’t know but I know Matt was still there when I got home

Matt: Keith

Matt: we 

Matt: don’t

Matt: speak

Lance: ooooh

Matt: of

Hunk: What happened? 

Matt: that? 

Allura: Pidge, give me the dirt. 

Pidge: you know I would

Pidge: but Matt would skin me alive

Matt: damn right I would

Lance: well now I really want to know what happened. 

Pidge: ;) 

Hunk: I feel like I should stay out of this

Lance: Keith… what was happening when you got home?

Lance: what did you hear

Keith: Um.. 

Keith: Not that. 

Keith: But SHiro was asleep and Matt was imprisoned. 

Matt: Keith. 

Matt: Don’t say another word

Matt: if you ever want me to keep my promise

Pidge: You know, I really love drama. 

Lance: Me too, Pidge. 

Shiro: ‘sup bitches. 

Matt: SHIRO?!!!

Hunk: What have you done with our Shiro? 

Keith: this… is what I was tlaking about. 

Lance: this isn’t our fantasy dad. This is some fucked up clone of him. 

Shiro: fuck fantasy dad 

Shiro: dad dad s head hurst

Pidge: Matt? You dead yet? 

Matt: …

Shiro: Joint the club

Lance: guyssss. I’m shook

Lance: Shooketh

Lance: Shiro is

Allura: swearing like a sailor? 

Keith: No, you aren’t imagining things. 

Keith: Shiro, shouldn’t you be teaching? 

Shiro: no

Hunk: Shiro… that is literally your job? 

Shiro: its nap time

Pidge: did I mention that I love drama? 

Keith: Shiro? no? what? 

Lance: Yaaay nap time. 

Shiro: I gave them nap time. 

Shiro: And they sounded ungrateful

Shiro: don’t they know the importance of sleep

Matt: probably, but you are sleep deprived too

Pidge: WHAT THE HECKL

Pidge: SOME FUCKED UP COLLEGE GIDS DON”T APPRECIATE NAPS

Lance: I KNOW

Lance: what the heck is wrong with them

Keith: its the perfect time ot look up conspiracies.

Hunk: Normally, I would say that students should be working not napping, but sleep is also important. 

Allura: Speaking of working, Hunk? Why are you texting while in class?

Hunk: because class hasn’t started yet. 

Lance: if the teacher is there 15 mins late the students can leave. 

Keith: Of course you would know that.

Lance: you didn’t??

Shiro: I want to leave. 

Shiro: if I’m 15 mins late then I can leave

Keith: you already arrived Shiro

Shiro: or did I?

Keith:....

Lance: Well? 

Lance: did you?

Shiro: I’m leaving.

Pidge: Can I go video tape Shiro all day?

Pidge: seriously.

Pidge: all day.

Hunk: No? Pidge? That would be stalking him and you should be in class anyway? 

Pidge: im too smart for this class

Pidge: it’s boring. 

Shiro: guys

Shiro: the door is locked

Shiro: we’re officially in a prison

Pidge: PRISON BREAK

Lance: PRISON BREAK!

Keith: Shiro, what have you done?

Shiro: I am trying to pick the lock but the students keep talking to me.

Matt: Shiro… are you okay? Are you still drunk?

Shiro: No. 

Shiro: my head hurts

Shiro: My pain is always growing

Pidge: same.

Lance: IF WE HAVE APRISON ESCAPE

Lance: CAN WE RIOT

Keith: riot

Lance: YES, KEITH

Keith: I was meaning that to sound exciting

Keith: riot!

Lance: you can just feel the enthusaim wafting off of him

Keith: I’ve been waiting for a riot. 

Keith: I have my knife

Shiro: I may want to get out of here and die, but Keith, no

Hunk: Yay! Responsible dad is back. 

Shiro: No, fuck responsible dad. 

Pidge: yay! Dead Dad is back!

Shiro: can you give me your knife Keith

Lance: why???

Shiro: I wanna break this lock

Keith: I would say yes

Keith: but I don’t really want to let you free on this world. 

Allura: Yeah… keep Shiro there. Make him rest. 

Allura: I gotta go. See you guys at lunch. 

Hunk: Me too. 

Matt: I’m just quietly watching this conversation while taking notes. 

Matt: Shiro, you need sleep. 

Pidge: Of course Matt is the concerned one.

Matt: Pidge…

Pidge: Alright, Alright

Keith: Shiro, you really do need sleep. 

Lance: yeah, you aren’t able to break out so you might as well sleep. 

Shiro: But sleep is for the WEAK. The fucking weak are the only ones who need sleep. 

Matt: Shiro, I’m not disagreeing with you, but please sleep. 

Keith: yeah….

Matt: is someone able to check on Shiro? 

Lance: no.

Keith: Not really. Plus, I had him all morning. 

Matt: alright. 

Shiro: I don’t need to be checked on. 

Shiro: I can fall asleep whenever I want. 

Matt: *sigh* I’m gonna go check on him. 

Keith: report back pls

Lance: Yeah! I want to know how dad dad is doing. 

Shiro: Dad dad is dead dead. 

Matt: See, this is what I mean.

Shiro: Matt, I”m fine.

Matt: doesn’t matter. I”m coming over. 

~~

Shiro~

Shiro rested his head on the cabinets next to him. The cool surface of wood felt good against his head. 

He was dully listening to the astronomy teacher, Mr. Ulaz, while scrolling through his phone. 

He wasn’t really so dead inside that he wanted to escape and riot and do all those crazy things....but he  _ was _ just tired enough that he found the pandemonium within his friends to be hilarious. 

As soon as he had walked into class, he had gone up to Mr. Ulaz, who he was supposed to be help teaching, and told him about how much of an idiot he was the previous night. Thankfully, Mr. Ulaz had understood and decided to help Shiro out and just let him rest instead of doing any of the activities he had been planning. 

Shiro was thankful that he was able to just listen and let his mind rest while Mr. Ulaz taught. He knew that this was a one time thing and that he wouldn’t get this lucky again, but it was still nice that Mr. Ulaz understood and didn’t force Shiro to work. He knew he would have been a mess if he had tried to teach. 

It had seemed like a good idea to check in on the group chat that was blowing up his phone with messages. 

But… Shiro had been so tired, he hadn’t really cared what he had written and writing things that resulted in his friends laughing and freaking out over text was entertaining. 

And… and then Matt had said he was coming over. 

Shiro didn’t even know what that meant. Matt had a class during this period as well. Was he planning on just skipping class to make Shiro skip class? 

Getting him both drunk and skipping school? In 24 hours? Shiro laughed to himself. The great nerdy friend Matt was being a poor influence on him. It was ridiculous but also true. 

Shiro shook his head, hoping that Matt wasn’t  _ really _ coming over. 

A text buzzed on his phone and Shiro picked it up to read. 

Matt: … Look behind you………

Shiro stared at the message for a moment. If it wasn’t Matt texting him, he would be concerned, but given that it was just Matt, Shiro turned and looked at the door which was technically on his right. 

Through the small window of the door, Shiro could see Matt with his face pressed up against the glass, staring at Shiro. Shiro chuckled to himself and shook his head. 

Matt grinned and waved for Shiro to leave. 

Shiro rolled his eyes and stood up, acting like he was heading to the restroom. 

He opened the door and turned around, closing the door softly behind him. 

“Are you okay?” Matt asked promptly once the door was closed. 

“What are you doing here?” Shiro asked at almost the same time. 

“ _ I  _ am here to comfort you,” Matt told Shiro. 

“But you are out of class.” 

“But you were more important,” Matt told Shiro. Shiro sighed inwardly. He wanted to believe that Matt cared for him as more than a friend, but he knew that even if Matt did care for him, it would be in a best-friend way. Shiro knew that they would never be anything more. He had accepted that a while ago when he had realized that he had a crush on his best friend. 

Shiro shook his head slightly. 

“I… I felt bad about last night,” Matt told him softly. 

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked slowly. 

“For… for getting you drunk….” Matt looked like he had something else he wanted to say but was too afraid to say it. 

Before Shiro could react, Matt was hugging him. 

Shiro froze up at the sudden touch. Matt had his arms wrapped around Shiro’s torso with his head resting on Shiro’s chest. Shiro forced his limbs to move so that he could return Matt’s hug, wrapping his arms gently around Matt. 

“I’m sorry, Shiro,” Matt whispered softly. 

“Don’t be,” Shiro told him. Matt stood back and looked up at Shiro, his amber eyes glinting. “I had fun. Even if I don’t remember it, I had fun.” 

Matt beamed, “You did?” 

Shiro thought that he saw a tint of pink on Matt’s cheeks but he couldn’t be sure. His vision  _ was  _ a little bleary unless he tried very hard to focus. 

“So,” Shiro said, pulling back from Matt to lean up against the wall, one leg propped up behind him. “What  _ did _ I do last night?”

Matt ducked his head. “Well…. You sort of one-upped Keith in cliff jumping…”

Shiro’s eyes grew wide. “I did  _ what _ ?!” 

Matt chuckled, not looking at Shiro, “Yeaaaahh…. That wasn’t even the worst of it.”

“Oh god,” Shiro whispered, “What did I  _ do? _ ” 

“Well… you decided to jump the cliff. Twice.” Matt was looking anywhere but at Shiro. 

“Matt… tell me,” Shiro said, having picked up on Matt’s hesitation. “I don’t want to find out what I did later…” 

Matt sighed, “So after you went cliff jumping, I took you home. You cried about Big Hero 6 in the car. Um… we… walked up the stairs… and then… uhm… I made sure you got into bed and I left once Keith arrived….” 

Shiro stared at Matt. That  _ couldn’t _ be it. He had vague memories of the car trip, now that Matt had mentioned it. But… he also remembered holding Matt. That didn’t make sense. Shiro would never act on any kind of the feelings he may or may not have. He wouldn’t have wanted to carry Matt. So had Matt prompted him? Or was Shiro just hoping that something had happened that didn’t really happen? 

That thought hurt his brain. 

Shiro closed his eyes and leaned his head back until it rested against the wall. 

“You weren’t around most of the group for most of the time.” 

“Well that’s good,” Shiro muttered. He could only imagine the kinds of things that Pidge and Lance would make him do. 

“Pidge has a video though, don’t they?” Shiro asked quietly.

“Yeah… I think so.” 

Shiro nodded. “Well… that will stay with me until the day I die. Fantastic.” 

“Eh,” Matt shrugged, “Don’t worry about it. They have so many bad videos of me. Ones that are  _ way  _ more embarrassing. Being the older brother means I have to suffer ten times as much.” 

Shiro laughed softly. “I suppose that’s true.” 

“Plus…” Matt added, looking up at Shiro, “I’m pretty sure that they respect you more than most people….” 

“That is a very high placed honor.” 

It was Matt’s turn to laugh. “Yes. Treasure it. Honor it. It is  _ valuable _ .” 

Shiro smiled. “Matt, sadly, this isn’t D&D where the characters are able to hold non-tangible valuables like that in their pockets. Which just really sucks.” 

“Yeah, I wish that I could store whatever I wanted in my pockets.” 

“We could carry so many useful things then!” 

“We could!” Matt agreed. 

Their laughter died off into a pause of silence. Shiro glanced at Matt. “You know,” he said, “As much as I love spending time talking with you, and as much as I want to know what I did while drunk,  I should really get back to class.” 

Matt smiled, “Yeah, me too. We’ve turned into such the rebels.” 

“I know!” Shiro cried. “Drinking, getting hungover, jumping off of cliffs, leaving class… I am turning into such the badboy.” 

Matt snorted. “Shiro… you will never be a ‘badboy.’ Maybe more like ‘Golden boy.’” 

“Then I could blind my enemies with my light!” 

Matt whacked at Shiro’s arm, “Well, I know that you are a beacon for weird nerds, apparently…” 

Shiro scoffed, clutching his chest like he was hurt. “A beacon for them?? First of all, my beacon is for everyone’s weirdness. Second, I am not a beacon, I am their supreme leader.”

Matt started laughing. “Hail supreme leader Shiro!” 

Shiro grinned and stretched his arms wide, pretending to accept cheers of praise and glory. 

“Alright, supreme leader,” Matt told him, still grinning. “I’m going to head back to class.” 

“Yeah, me too,” Shiro said, pointing behind him. 

“Okay,” Matt said with a soft smile. “Sounds good…. I’ll see you at lunch!” 

“See you at lunch,” Shiro asserted, turning back to go into the classroom. He waved to Matt as he closed the door softly, returning to his spot at the back of the classroom. 

Mr. Ulaz was giving a lecture on novas and how they could be viewed from great distances. Shiro wished that he could give the lecture instead. That his head would stop pounding. 

He wanted to distract himself. 

All he could think about was how soft Matt’s smile had been. How his face had lit up when he had seen Shiro. The soft warmth of his embrace. 

Shiro already wished that he could have more time to talk to Matt…. While at the same time not wanting to see him at all. His brain was confusing. Matt would never,  _ never, _ feel anything towards Shiro. Not in a non-friend way. 

So there was no point for Shiro to waste his brain-space thinking up reasons why Matt might like him. There was no point in Shiro trying to decide if his feelings were greater than their friendship. 

Because… Shiro knew that he valued Matt as a friend more than he wanted him to be… more. 

Shiro sighed, staring at the vibrant multicolored nebulous up on the screen. 

_ Why can’t things ever just be easy?  _

_ Why can’t things just sort themselves out without all of the pain and struggling beforehand?  _

_ Why does everything have to be so complicated?  _

 

Keith~

Keith had arrived at the lunch table before Shiro, sliding into the next available seat before realizing that it was a seat next to Lance and that he had just made a grave mistake. 

“Well, hello there, Princess,” Lance said, leaning with his head resting on his arm that was propped up on the table. He had one eyebrow raised and the other slanted downwards while he smirked at Keith. “How is my fair lady doing?” 

“Screw you,” Keith muttered, adjusting the tiara on his head with disdain. The thing was starting to bother him. It would fall off at the worst possible moments and if it pulled at his hair, it would pull out a giant tangled clump of hair instead of just coming out of his hair. 

Keith picked at his lunch, wondering if Shiro was okay or if he was in need of some kind of help. Keith hadn’t been able to stop worrying about him since the morning when he had been so out of it. 

“Do any of you guys know where Shiro is?” Keith asked the group. 

“No, but he’d better get here. Quickly,” Pidge growled. “I’m dying to show that video.”

“I’m sure he’s okay,” Matt told Keith. “I was talking to him earlier and he seemed mostly okay.” 

“You call that group chat ‘mostly okay?” Hunk asked skeptically. 

“He… was joking for most of that…” Matt said softly. 

“GASP! Our dad was making  _ Jokes, _ ” Lance said loudly. “Like he was  _ trying _ to be funny?” 

“Apparently,” Allura added as she took a bite of her salad. 

“Guys,” Keith said, drawing everyone’s focus back to him. “I’m just a little worried about Shiro. Should I try to fin—” 

“Nope!” Lance declared loudly pointing behind Keith. “There’s our hungover dad!”

“HI DAD!!!” Pidge shouted, waving their arms around. 

“Though… what is he  _ wearing _ ?” Lance asked. 

“Comfy clothes,” Keith and Matt answered simultaneously. 

“But—!” Lance said, gesturing to Shiro’s yoga pants, faded t-shirt, sunglasses, and slip on shoes, “Shiro….” 

“Hello everyone,” Shiro said, pushing his sunglasses up his nose, “I would very much appreciate it if death were to visit me during the course of today.”

“Shiro…” Hunk said slowly. 

“Bravo. Me too,” Pidge said. “Now watch this.” 

“No, no, no,” Lance interjected. “I need an explanation. Why?” 

“I’m dead,” Shiro told him. 

“But… you have sunglasses on…”

“They keep the light away and keep my soul trapped in the eternal dark within myself,” Shiro said plainly.

“Shiroooo,” Pidge whined, getting out of their seat to drape themself over Shiro’s arm. “I need you to watch this  _ now _ . The fate of whatever sanity I have left depends on it.” 

“Wait,” Hunk said slowly, “You have  _ sanity _ ?” 

“I know,” Pidge sighed, “Insane isn’t it?” 

Hunk whacked his forehead in exasperation. 

“Laaance,” Pidge moaned to Lance, “I need you to film this.”

“Film what?” Lance asked through a mouthful of the sandwich he had just taken a bite of.

“Um, I want you to film the gum crusting on the walls? No, his reaction!” 

“Oh,” Lance said softly. 

Keith snickered into his hand. He couldn’t help being insanely excited to see how Shiro would react. It would either go very well or very poorly and he didn’t know which. 

Once Lance had pulled out his phone and nodded to Pidge to indicate that he was recording, Pidge started playing the video. 

The screen work was shaky and every time Pidge laughed the speakers crackled with sound but you could see Shiro and the rest of the group along the sidelines and hear what they were saying. 

Keith watched over Shiro’s other shoulder as he got on the motorcycle and drove off of the side of the cliff. 

“Well at least I remembered a helmet,” Shiro commented. 

Shiro was driving off of the cliff. Pidge was laughing like a maniac, the camera shaking with every movement that they made. 

In the video, Shiro yelled “FUCK MY LIFE,” as he did a 180 flip. 

Pidge started laughing over the film, “Fantasy Dad is schooling us!” 

Shiro watched in pensive amusement. 

“STOP IT YOU FUCKING SHOW OFF!” Keith yelled through the video. 

“Nice one, Keith,” Lance said dryly to him. Keith glares at him, rolling his eyes and not knowing how to respond. 

Shiro came back up the top and did a beautiful jump up onto the top of the cliffside. 

“Why is drunk me so much better at this than sober me?” Shiro asked. No one responded. 

As Shiro came up on his bike he yelled “FUCK THE SYSTEM I AM INVINCIBLE!” 

“And I have no filter,” Shiro noticed. 

He watched as his drunk-past self was persuaded into going down the cliff again. Keith couldn’t help but laugh along with the group at Drunk Shiro’s antics. 

“YEET I CAN’T DIE!” Drunk Shiro yelled. 

“Did I just say ‘yeet’?” 

“That you did, Fantasy Dad,” Pidge said, patting his shoulder in a somewhat comforting, somewhat menaicle way. 

Hunk shouted about safety but Shiro ignored him to keep doing more tricks. 

“Guys,” Hunk interjected in the present, “I’m not kidding. Safety is exceptionally important. It is what keeps you alive.” 

“But what if you don’t want to live?” Shiro asked. “And also, why did none of you stop me? I can not  believe I did that twice. Matt, I thought you were the responsible one!”

Matt shrugged, “Sorry. Drunk Shiro was just too funny.”

Shiro sighed. “Apparently drunk me is good at executing really hard motorcycle tricks and not dying even though I would want to.” 

Allura scowled at him. “You don’t really want to die. You just say you do.”

“Mmm….” Keith trialed off for Shiro. “I think that all of us in the ‘death’ party legitimately want death. We just won’t actually die. But if death was right here, in our face, I think we might just be like ‘hello old friend.” 

“‘Hello darkness my old friend,” Lance sung quietly. 

Keith immediately looked at Lance. No matter how annoying he could be, in that one line, his voice had sounded oddly beautiful. In an unused scratchy sort of way. 

“‘I’ve come to talk with you again,” Pidge continued. 

Keith decided to join in softly, “Because a vision softly creeping,” But at the same time, Lance had sung the lyrics. Keith might not have had a perfect ear for music, but their voices oddly complimented each other. 

“Left its seeds while I was sleeping,” Lance and Keith continued, their volume growing as they got more in tune with each other and more confident. 

“And the vision, that was planted in my brain,” Keith leaned closer to Lance and Lance leaned closer to Keith in their duet. 

“Still remains,” they sang dramatically, their voices still quiet enough that only the people at their table could hear. 

“Um, Guys?” Hunk interrupted.

“No, no, no,” Pidge scolded him. “I was filming that. They were just getting to the good part.”

“Yeah, dude,” Lance crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head in mock shame. “You didn’t let us even sing the  _ chorus _ .” 

“I’m sorry,” Hunk said genuinely. “Your bonding was very adorable, but I wanted to remind you that there is only about five.. . now four minutes left of lunch so if you want to finish up your lunch, now would be a good time.” 

Keith glanced at Lance. He chose to ignore hunk’s ‘adorable’ comment and instead stared intently at Lance. Lance nodded. At the same time, they sang, louder than before, “WITHIN THE SOUND OF SILENCE.” 

Shiro clapped. “Bravo. Beautiful work.” 

“Encore, Encore!”Pidge shouted while they pulled open their phone’s camera. 

Keith rolled his eyes, adjusting the tiara on his head. He smiled at Lance faintly. 

Lance did have a pretty good singing voice, though, when Keith paused to think about it. His voice almost reminded him of a cartoon he used to watch where the main character would sing sometimes and would go on crazy adventures with his talking, best friend, dog. 

Keith shook his head. It didn’t matter what he sounded like. Because the things he said were obnoxious. And that was all that Keith focused on. 

Not at all the very faint freckles that were speckles across Lance’s cheeks. Nope. 

The bell to end lunch rang and everyone packed up to leave. 

Right before Lance walked away, he leaned closer to Keith and sang, “In restless dreams I walk alone.” 

A part of Keith wanted to continue onto the song and the other part of him wanted to scoff and run away. 

So of course, like an idiot, he sat there and stared, like a deer caught in headlights, at Lance until Lance waved goodbye and left for his next class. 

Keith blinked away his paralysis and, against his own volition,  whispered “Narrow Streets of cobblestone…” 

 

~The next day~

 

Hunk~

“You walk up to the yawning mouth of the cave,” Coran told them, leaning close to the table in order to act ominous. “Stalagmites hang from the ceiling—”

“Stalactites,” Pidge corrected. “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t know that. Haven’t you heard the rhyme?” 

Coran sat up looking at Pidge, perplexed. “Number five, I am not a science teacher. I haven’t scienced for 60 some years.” 

“Coran… you aren’t even 60 years old,” Hunk sighed. 

“But I feel that old sometimes…” Coran told them. 

“A mood,” Shiro said dryly. 

Hunk couldn’t help but put a hand to his forehead as Lance and the Holts started laughing. 

“Anyway,” Pidge interrupted, “The rhyme… well… not really a rhyme. More like a saying…?” They looked to Hunk but Hunk merely shrugged. He wasn’t sure what ‘rhyme’ Pidge was talking about. 

“Matt?” Pidge asked. 

“Sorry,” Matt shrugged, tilting his head to the side. “I don’t know what you mean.” 

Pidge sighed. 

“Do you mean that one about the ‘Might’ and ‘Tight’?” Keith asked. 

“Yes!” Pidge cried. 

“‘Stalagmites  _ might _ grow up to the ceiling while Stalactites have to hold  _ tight _ to the ceiling,’” Keith quoted. 

“You are my new best friend,” Pidge told him.

“Where did you even learn that from?” Lance asked. 

“Yeah, I have never heard that before,” Allura told them. 

“I’m surprised that you guys  _ didn’t _ learn that—” Keith started to say before Coran cut him off by raising his hands in a ‘hail-me’ gesture. 

“Attention! Attention in the court!” 

Lance put a fist around his mouth and pretended to make a trumpeting sound. 

Hunk smiled at the group’s antics. This. This right here was why they got nothing done. They would go off into random tangents and never get back to  _ actually playing the game _ . 

“I shall now continue the entering of the grand cave,” Coran told them like he was someone of royal importance. “You walk up towards the yawning mouth of the cave, the large  _ stalactites _ hanging down from the ceiling like fangs and dripping water like blood from a great beast’s maw.”

“Oh, yes,” Hunk said dryly. “I definitely want to go in there. I’m thinking there will be a nice warm fire with some porridge sitting out for us to eat.” 

“And then the bears will come eat us…” Pidge told Hunk .

“What? Why would there be bears?” Allura asked. 

“Oh, you have  _ got _ to be fucking kidding me,” Pidge moaned. “You haven’t heard of fucking  _ Goldilocks _ ?” 

Allura shrugged. “No? What is it? A horror story? Like those Steve Kind books?” 

Lance burst out laughing, “Nope. It’s—”

“AND YOU WALK INTO THE CAVE,” Coran said loudly over the table in an attempt to progress the game forward. 

“Huzzah,” Pidge added dryly. 

“Once inside,” Coran continued, pausing only to glance shiftily to each person in the audience. “You see that there are three doors. One is green. One is blue. And the final is yellow. Above the green door there is a carving of a tree. Above the blue door you see a picture of a mother and a child. Above the yellow door, there is a carved butterfly with the wings spread wide. The only other thing of interest that you can see is some writing along one wall but it is too dark to be able to make out clearly.” 

“I’ve got this,” Allura said, her character pulling out a glowing orb of light. “The wall reads…” She paused while Coran handed her a slip of paper so that she could read the writing that was on the walls. “‘Follow the Sun.’ but Sun is a drawing of a round circle with small lined rays coming off the edge.” 

“So it’s a riddle,” Matt said. “I’m good at riddles.”

“I’ve got this,” Lance smiled slyly, turning to Coran. “Coran, I would like to seduce the door on the right.” 

“You would like to do  _ what now _ ?” Keith asked, for some reason surprised. 

“He wants to seduce the door once again,” Hunk sighed. He had stopped being surprised by Lance years ago. 

“Again?” Keith asked, surprised. 

“Yes.This is the twelfth time. This campaign.” Hunk breathed out, sighing.

“Coran! I got a 13! Can I do it? Can I?” 

“SURE! Why not, my boy,” Coran said joyfully. “Pike walks up to the door and leans on the wall next to it, smiling seductively.” 

Lance stood up and walked towards the classroom door, leaning on the wall next to it. “Well, hello there, Sunshine. Aren’t you beautiful… wanna… have some fun?” 

Hunk couldn’t help but laugh with everyone else as Lance successfully “seduced the door’ and then proceeding to sit back down at his own chair, triumphant. 

“Coran… why do you endorse him?” Keith asked 

Coram merely shrugged. 

“So…while Lance is fucking a door… let’s figure out this riddle,” Pidge said to the group. 

“Alright,” Matt announced, taking lead of the group. “So, we are looking to follow the sun. One of these doors must imply sun, or light… or warmth… or life…” 

“The tree would imply life,” Allura said thoughtfully, tapping her chin with her forefinger. 

“True…” Hunk said, visualizing the doors in his mind. “But as Lance said… the yellow one is probably the color of sunshine.” 

“You do have a point there Hunk,” Pidge said speculatively. “But… that seems too obvious.” 

“Guys,” Keith said quietly. 

Hunk turned his head to listen to what Keith had to say, but then Allura was talking, “No… but we have to follow the sun. Trees’ leaves follow the sun. Isn’t that just… a plant rule?” 

“Yeah…” Shiro added, “I don’t see how butterflies have anything to do with the sun.” 

“Guys....” Keith said a bit louder. 

“Um…” Hunk tried to interject, “I think Ke—” 

“But!” Matt interrupted triumphantly, “Maybe it isn’t a butterfly! Maybe it’s a moth! And moths follow the light.” 

Hunk heard Keith mutter something about following mothman to the end, but then Keith was saying “GUYS!” much louder. 

Finally, everyone turned to him, to hear what he had to say. 

“Are you guys all stupid?” Keith asked. 

“What? No,” Pidge said “We are all the most advanced forms of human stupidity that there is!!” 

“True,” Hunk agreed quietly. 

“Well…” Keith sighed,stopped in the middle of what he was going to say. “You guys are overlooking the OBVIOUS answer.” 

Lance leaned next to Keith, “And what might that be, Princess?” 

“Oh, are you done with your door?” Pidge asked him monotony. 

“Yes. We had a great time,” Lance told them. 

“I thought I told you, Lance,” Hunk sighed, dramatically rolling his eyes, “I don’t care to hear  _ anything _ about your sex life. I don’t care with whom or what you do it to… just don’t tell me.” 

Lance started to laugh, “Alright alright. I just think that this whole dilemma is ridiculous. We all know that blue is the best color so let’s just… knock on it?” 

Lance rolled his dice and told Coran to let them push through before he got consent from the others.

“Sounds great!” Coran said. “Pike presses into the blue door and it swings wide into a normal looking hallway. Large rock is carved into a roughly rounded shape to form the walls and there is a dull light emanating from the ceiling. You can’t see the end of the tunnel but you continue forwards regardless, confident in your choice of doors.”

“I am in fact not confident in our choice of doors,” Allura said skeptically. 

“Once Princess Keith, the one at the back of the group, has made it into the hallway,” Coran continued slowly, pausing… 

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound.

Hunk jumped backwards on instinct, arms splayed out to catch himself if he fell. 

“BLAM,” Coran shouted, “The ground caves out and everyone falls downward!” 

“What?!!!” Keith shouted. Hunk noticed that he had also jumped back from the table, knife in hand. “This is the door?!” 

“CORAN!” Pidge yelped, hands on the table, “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT!!!???” 

“YES CORAN!” Lance shouted, “I, too, would like to know WHAT THE FUCK?” 

Coran was bent over laughing. Allura looked panicked and frozen in place. Matt’s eyes were darting around like he was searching for an escape. Shiro’s eyes were narrowed in preparation to attack anything that came at them. 

“Okay, okay,” Coran said, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes. “You guys can take a seat. All I did was open this container of dominoes and drop them onto the floor.” 

Hunk nodded, “That… That is the loudest most terrifying sound in existence.” 

“I THINK WE JUST FIGURED THAT OUT,” Lance said, still shouting. 

“What I would like to know is why we are  _ falling _ when that was the  _ right door _ !!” Keith cried. 

“What?!” Pidge cried, sounding genuinely shocked. “You mean that Lance  _ didn’t _ fuck this up?” 

“No,” Keith sighed, “for once, he didn’t.” 

“W-w-wait,” Matt said, making the ‘time-out’ sign. “What was the answer? How did you know? Just.. explain things in general for me.” 

“‘Follow the Sun,’” Keith quoted. “It didn’t say the word Sun written out as S-U-N. It had a picture of a sun. You had to read it. And when you read out loud, you hear the word Sun.” 

“I’m sorry Keith,” Hunk told him, “But I’m not following.” 

“The word it was saying was Son as in S-O-N,” Keith said somewhat patiently and somewhat frustratedly. “And what was above the blue door?” 

“A mother and her child!” Allura shouted triumphantly. 

“Exactly,” Keith nodded. 

“Wow,” Lance breathed. “I am  _ really _ good at BS-ing riddles! Sweet!” 

Keith whacked Lance in the arm. “No, you got lucky this time. You are not good at riddles.”

“How do you know, Princess Mullet? I could be great at riddles and you just don’t know it!”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I don’t know, I just somehow suspect that the bard who just crashed through a door isn’t that good with riddles.”

“Well, you are right there,” Hunk said, jokingly. “Lance gets like those 10% of riddles that no one else can get.” 

“True,” Pidge added, “and that is a useful asset.” 

“Guys, can we find out what happened to us  _ falling to our deaths _ ,” Allura asked impatiently. 

“I don’t know,” Shiro sighed. “I think it’s kind of relaxing.”

“What? The falling?” Matt asked, “Or the knowing you are heading towards death?” 

“Both,” Shiro replied. 

“Coran?” Allura asked. 

“Alright,” Coran nodded, “So everyone continues to fall for what seemed like an eternity, the walls rushing past and closing in as you fall. Everyone is screaming as they near… something.” 

“Coran…” Shiro interjected. “I really feel like my character would be sitting there meditatively. Maybe sitting cross-legged and staring at everyone in the group.” 

“Well fine, sure. Why not?” Coran said lightly before returning to the story. “Suddenly, the walls widened you could see a floor beneath you. But it wasn’t just any floor! Everyone fell into a pool of liquid. The liquid was such a vibrant blue that it was hard to look at and almost impossible to see through. It felt grainy and thick compared to normal water. 

“Everyone collided with the water in one ginormous splash. Once the whole team was able to surface, they looked around frantically until they spotted shore and decided to swim towards it.

“Once on the shore, everyone attempted to get themselves as dry as they could with the limited space and towels. Keith’s dress was sopping, Lance’s lute was full of liquid. Pidge had dropped their knife in the lake of liquid—” 

“Oh what?” Pidge shouted. “That is just… no!” 

“Pidge, do you want to go look for it?” Keith asked. “I mean, Coran… this is like torture. You are forcing Pidge to lose their knife and me to be in a dress.” 

“A wet dress,” Lance laughed. “I can’t imagine how you would fight in that.”

“It would be so hard to move in,” Allura agreed, nodding. 

“Coran?” Keith said turning to the mustached man who was smugly watching their suffering, “Can I cut my dress short? Or Something?”  

“Roll,” Coran told him. 

Keith picked up his dice and rolled it. “I got a 6.” 

“Yikes,” Lance laughed. 

“You can only cut the dress to your knees,” Coran told him, “No shorter.”

Keith sighed, “Okay. Deal.” 

“Coran,” Shiro interjected, “Can we please just move along with this story? I would like to know what this blue goop is.” 

“I, too, would like to know what this blue goop is,” Matt added raising a finger to add his point. 

“On the shore, you see two tunnels along the wall,” Coran described to them. “One looks larger and the other smaller but otherwise they are identical.” 

“NOT MORE RIDDLES!” Pidge moaned. 

“I thought you liked riddles?” Hunk asked inquisitively. 

“I want to beat stuff up not use my brain, Hunk.” 

“That’s fair,” Hunk replied. 

“So anyone up for the I-don’t-give-a-shit tactic of tunnel choosing?” Lance asked. 

“What is that?” Keith questioned. 

“It is exactly what it sounds like,” Lance told him. “It is where we go on random mode with Pidge taking the lead because they remember the path we take so when we hit a dead-end we aren’t lost.”

“Oh, okay sounds good. That makes a lot of sense actually,” Keith replied. 

“See,” Lance leaned closer, smirking, “I do have moments of brilliance.”

If Hunk wasn’t mistaken, he  _ swore _ he saw the faintest twinge of pink on Keith’s cheeks. “That… that wasn’t brilliance. That was you explaining something.” 

“Pidge, lead on!” Shiro told them. 

“My pleasure,” Pidge replied. 

Pidge pulled out a coin and flipped it. Hunk sighed as it landed on heads. Pidge announced that they were immediately heading towards the right, same as they normally would. Every time they reached a split in the tunnel Pidge would flip a coin and they would head in that direction. At the first dead-end that they reached, Coran described a giant glob of goo was hovering on the ceiling and crashed down on top of them engulfing Keith, Allura, and Matt. 

Lance had cried out in outrage, declaring that he was supposed to protect the fair princess. Shiro rolled and lept up with his sword and hacked off a portion of the goo creature’s body, almost cleaving off Matt’s arm, Coran told them. 

“SHIRO!” Matt cried through the goop. “DON’T TAKE ME WITH IT! I NEED YOU TO SAVE ME!!” 

Hunk cast a slow spell on the goo creature, slowing it down even further from its lethargic state. He loved these times because everyone could see the creature before them and acted like they could, screaming out lines and grumbling over actions they had no need to grumble over all while frantically rolling and attacking.

Pidge wasn’t of any help, stuck on the ground with a battle axe which caused them to get very angry. “COME DOWN HERE AND TAKE A PIECE OF ME!!! WHAT ARE YOU??? A SCARDY SLUG??” 

“Pidge,” Allura called from the goop, “Please stop antagonizing the slug creature and try to get us out of here!” 

“WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M DOING?” Pidge shouted, “I’M A STUPID BARBARIAN AND I’M SHORT AND I DON’T HAVE SUPER POWERS LIKE SHIRO.” 

“I don’t have super powers, Pidge,” Shiro told them. “I am just…” 

“Super?” Matt suggested. 

“I was going to say ‘determined’ but that works to.” 

“YOU CALL THAT SAVING?” Keith yelled at Lance. 

Lance— who was unfortunately rolling horribly low—  jumped up and got his legs and right arm stuck in the goo. He pulled out a dagger with his left hand and started slashing at the goop aggressively. “I AM HELPING,” Lance told Keith angrily. 

“Guys?” Hunk asked quietly, “I know this is an intense moment of the adventure, but can we please  just all just stop yelling? We are literally two feet away from each other..” 

“Oh, sorry Hunk,” Lance said, relaxing. “But! I have to kill! This very! Obnoxious! Slug!” 

“And save your princess?” Pidge added. 

“Yeah, Lance,” Keith smirked, looking at Lance, “I can’t believe that you would let your princess, the one you swore to protect, be consumed by a large pink goo blob.” 

“WELL,” Lance retorted loudly before realizing that he was supposed to be quieter, “Well, cutting a large pink blob isn’t that easy!” 

“Hey, hey guys?” Allura announced, reading from a slip of paper that Coran handed her, “This goop, this goop is like that blue stuff we had to swim through. We can get out of this.” 

“We just need to swim and dive,” Matt said, nodding along.

“Oh, what?” Lance cried indignantly. “I wanted to save the day!” 

Keith glared at him and attempted to swim along with Allura and Matt. Unlike the others who were making progress in their swimming, Keith was more floundering in the slug’s gelatinous substance. 

Hunk watched with both fascination and amusement as Keith splashed around (miming it in real life), doggy paddling to try to get to the thinnest part of the slug. 

“Dude,” Lance said, treading the slug’s goo, “Come on. Just swim.” 

“I’M TRYING!” Keith yelled. “THIS SHIT IS HARD.” And he had gotten a low roll. 

“Why?” Lance asked. “Just swim.” 

“Lance, I swear, I grew up in a FUCKING DESERT. LEAVE ME ALONE.” 

Lance burst out laughing and drew closer to Keith. “May I assist thee, milady?” 

“Lance…” Keith said warningly, “You need to take that assistance and—” 

“KEITH!” Pidge yelled, “Enough! Just let the fish help you swim!” 

Hunk listened to Coran as he described Matt and Allura being covered in goop but on the ground. Only Lance and Keith were still stuck in the pink goop. 

“Yes, Princess Keith,” Lance smiled, “ _ Let me show you the world _ .” 

“Those aren’t even the lyrics,” Keith grumbled as he took Lance’s hand very reluctantly. “I mean, come on!” 

“ _ SHIMMERING, SHINING, SPLENDID!”  _ Lance shouted. 

“Ah,” Keith said dryly. “This hurts my ears to listen to.” 

Lance was holding Keith’s hand as he pulled him across the slick surface of the goop. 

“Now tell me, princess, when did you let your mullet decide?” 

“Okay,” Hunk said, “Lance, this is hurting  _ me _ .” 

“A NEW WHOLE PLACE!!! A NEW BRILLIANT P. O. V.” Lance was laughing as he was swimming with Keith next to him, holding his hand. From what Hunk could see, he was pretty sure that Keith was blushing faintly as he was swimming, but that could have just been ‘pink goo’ glowing on their faces. 

“Lance…” Pidge sighed, “You are killing my five year old heart.” 

There was a chorus of ‘same’s from everyone in the group save for Lance who was singing and Keith who was turned away from Lance, holding his hand, and blushing. 

“Wait,” Matt said, elbowing Pidge, “Are you admitting to having a heart?” 

“I am admitting to once having a heart when I was a young and innocent child.” 

“For some reason,” Hunk stared at them, “I really cannot imagine you as innocent or a child.”

“Yeah, neither can I,” Lance piped in.. 

“Oh, wonderful,” Shiro said brightly, “you stopped si—” 

“NO ONE TO TELL US ‘NO’ OR WHAT WE CAN’T TO DO!!” 

“Aaaand he started again,” Allura sighed. 

Finally, Keith and Lance got back on the ground though it was another couple of seconds before Lance and Keith let go of each other’s hands and looked away frantically. 

“WHELP!” Pidge said. “That was a dead-end. Now, we head the other way!” 

Everyone sighed in unison except for Coran who looked at them with a savage eagerness in his eyes. 

They continued and took the opposite of the first tunnel they came across, hoping that they wouldn’t hit another dead end. 

Of course they did. 

Large gargoyles were clustered in the room. 

They chose to flee. 

The pattern continued with them going down tunnel after tunnel, finding a monster at the end of each dead-end. 

“CORAN,” Lance moaned after their 11th tunnel, “Is this revenge for falling asleep in your class?” 

“Maybe.” 

“DUDE! WHAT?” Pidge slammed their fist on the table. “THIS IS ANARCHY!! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!” 

“But… Coran… I haven’t slept through your class,” Shiro whined. 

“Ehhh,” Matt interjected. “You remember that one night?” he asked Shiro. 

“Oh. Right. That…” 

“Has even Hunk slept through your class?” Allura asked. 

“YES. EVEN HUNK,” Coran told them. 

“Coran,” Hunk tried to argue, “I think that we should try to move onwards in the story…” 

“But torturing you guys is so much fun. And I mapped this whole place out already.” He reached under the table and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. Coran slowly unfolded the paper to epic proportions until it was taking up the entirety of the table. On the paper, thin lines of tunnels and small sketches of what lay in the dead ends and notes written in a scratchy handwriting covering the entire page. 

Lance whistled appreciatively. 

“You guys are about here,” Coran said, pointing to one of the earlier parts of the maze. 

“ARE YOU KIDDING US?!” Everyone yelled in variation at once. 

Coran shrugged and smiled at them all. 

“At  _ least _ ,” Pidge grumbled, “Let us use the map so we  _ aren’t STUCK in these SHITTY TUNNELS FOREVER.”  _

“It isn’t forever,” Coran said, smiling. 

“Would you cut it short?” Hunk asked kindly. 

“We promise not to sleep in your class anymore,” Matt sighed. 

“Wait. You don’t even take his history anymore…” Lance objected. 

“Still, I swear to that,” Matt told Coran. 

“Hmmm…” Coran tilted his head pensively. “I don’t know… I have a lot of really fun traps planned.” 

“Coran,” Hunk said tiredly, pinching his nose, “I am pretty sure that if you don’t speed up this labyrinth, then someone is going to rage quit.” 

“I’m betting Keith,” Lance smirked. 

Hunk looked over to see Keith with his arms folded across his  chest, his eyes narrowed at Coran, and his golden crown sitting awkwardly crooked on the top of his head. 

“I will join you on that bet,” Pidge agreed. 

Keith inhaled sharply and then breathed out muttering something like “Patience yields focus.” 

“Guys… can we just keep going?” Hunk requested. 

“I will continue if we get the fucking map,” Pidge growled slamming their fist on the table. 

“Coran, can you just… move us forward?” Hunk asked solemnly. 

Coran cleared his throat and tried to look regal. “Alright, so you move forward only to have a swarm of large, twisted, bat-like creatures attack you!” 

_ BANG _

Shiro slammed his hands on the table. 

“Nope. Nope. I’m done. I  _ cannot _ deal with this stupid labyrinth anymore!” 

“Shiro…” Keith said softly, “There are monsters. And… and Patience Yields Focus.” 

“Keith, right now I say eff patience. I am running on nothing and don’t want to be in these  _ stupid _ tunnels anymore.” 

“That’s fair,” Lance sighed. 

“Coran?” Allura asked, “Can you  _ please _ let us leave these tunnels.” 

“You’re hurting Shiro’s brian,” Matt said. He had gotten out of his chair to stand behind Shiro and hold his arm in what Hunk supposed was supposed to be a comforting way. “We all decided not to hurt the child.” 

Hunk looked at them for a second longer than he probably needed to. He swore that there was something going on between those two. 

“Fine fine fine,” Coran muttered unhappily. “You guys don’t appreciate my art.” 

“We appreciate it very much,” Allura said, “just… maybe let’s continue the story and use your beautiful tunnels later.” 

“That’s sugar coating it,” Pidge groaned. “LET’S GET OUT OF THESE FUCKING TUNNELS I WANT TO DO SOMETHING OF INTEREST.” 

“I’ll be right back,” Matt announced over Pidge before leaving the room.

“Guys,” Hunk interjected, starting to get worried. “It’s okay. Coran was just… trying to create something difficult. Not very fun in practice… but that’s okay! We’ll just shorten it and get out of here quickly.” 

“Yes please,” Lance sighed, burying his head in his arms. “Coran?” 

Coran sighed, “Alright….” 

“Yes!” Shiro exclaimed, “We can get out of here!” 

“Finally,” Pidge sighed. “Lance being Coran’s favorite nephew has saved us!” 

The door to the room opened just then to reveal Matt carrying three small desks stacked together. “Okay everyone,” he gasped, clearly winded, “I have brought in some desks. Commence the table flipping!” 

“Fuck yeah!” Pidge said bounding out of their chair and towards the desks at the same time as Shiro stood up saying, “Yay! Table flipping.” 

“Shiro,” Keith said slowly, “I’m surprised that you… are okay… with potentially damaging school property.” 

“I don’t see why this is necessary,” Allura huffed. 

Shiro turned back to Keith and said, “I usually don’t advocate this sort of thing, but I’m going to make an exception today.” 

He turned around towards his table and flipped it over with a low grunt/yell.

“Huzzah!” Pidge shouted as they flipped their table. 

“Let’s get out of these tunnels!” Matt agreed as he flipped the last table. 

Everyone at the table stared at them as they sat down. 

“You know,” Lance said, raising his head out of his arms, “I always thought that Shiro was the sane one out of you two.” 

“Well,” Pidge interrupted before either Matt or Shiro could respond though Hunk was certain he saw Matt blushing and trying to hide it. “Is anyone at this table  _ truly _ sane?” 

A chorus of “no”s echoed around the table. 

“I don’t know,” Lance tilted his head to the side, “I think that Hunk and Allura are pretty sane.” 

Allura snorted a laugh. Hunk just shrugged. “I don’t think I’m either sane or not. I think I’m just… somewhere in between there.” 

“Probably true,” Lance nodded, “I don’t think that anyone who can be friends with Pidge is normal.” 

Pidge snorted and grinned mischievously. “Ah, yes. Wonderful.” 

“Okay everyone,” Coran announced, “I’ve cut down the tunnels. You can escape within ten turns if you do lots of things in the remaining parts or you can probably get out in one to three if you don’t.” 

“Fantastic,” Matt said, grabbing the dice to roll.

They all agreed to not dautle in the tunnels and made it out in the next two turns, much to everyone’s relief. 

Lance flopped onto the table. “The outside world! Oh what a beautiful thing you are!” he kissed the table which was probably infected with all kinds of bacteria. “I thought I would never see you again!”

“That may still be a possibility,” Coran said, smirking. “You begin to look at your surroundings and notice that you are, in fact, still inside of the cave.” 

“Whaaat?!” Everyone sighed in unison. 

“This cave, however, is tinted blood red and it seems like there is something creating bubbles beneath the surface of the red-brown water.” 

“FINALLY,” Lance said excitedly. He grabbed onto Keith’s arm and leaned close to him, “Did you hear that? We get to  _ get  _ to fight a  _ monster _ .”

“Yay? I think?” Keith replied. 

“Yes, yay!” Lance echoed. “Fighting monsters is the  _ best _ . When they are larger boss monsters and not those petty goo blobs or whatever.” 

“You walk towards the bubbling liquid and wait to see if something happens. The ripples in the pool grow larger. The bubbles stop all together. You don’t know what to think,”

“I’m thinking that this is amazing!” Lance announced. 

“Well, okay,” Keith sighed, “I guess Lance is the only one who knows what to think.” 

Pidge gasped, “Lance can think?” 

“This is brand new scientific data everyone. Ground breaking research,” Hunk said, pretending to write like a reporter. 

“ _ Plip, Plip, _ ” Coran said ominously, interrupting their teasing. “The water begins to bubble upwards. Then… suddenly… there’s an eruption of water and…” Coran paused dramatically, “And you are all placed under the creature’s spell.” 

 

Coran~

Coran bit his lip with excitement. He had been waiting for this moment for so long. 

He remembered everyone’s confused faces when he had asked them to write down what they thought beauty in a person meant. He had read their cards and translated them into the story. 

And now, he was able to pass back the new and improved cards. 

“Before you,” He announced, trying to hold back a smile, “Is the creature that exists on these cards.” 

“It’s a shapeshifter then?” Allura asked as she took her card. 

“Of sorts…” Coran replied. “Now, the rules are: You can’t share what’s on your own card. You can make hints, you can let your actions speak for you, anything along those lines, but you cannot share with others directly what is on your card.” 

“Coran… this is making me nervous,” Lance pursed his lips as he spoke. 

“Don’t worry, my dear nephew. It’ll be fun!” 

“I think we have different definitions of fun,” Hunk told Coran. 

“Maybe!” Coran declared joyously. “Now, commence the turning over of the cards.”

Coran watched each member’s face as their eyes darted across the paper. Allura, whose card described a beautiful person with long light colored hair and a rich voice that seemed to resonate throughout the room, was smiling softly at the card. 

Keith was scowling at his card. He hadn’t requested much. Only that the person was both mothman and someone that he could trust. So Coran had embellished the details a little and decided to describe two people. One was mothman and one was of someone who had brown hair, blue eyes,  and freckles across their nose. Just to see how he would react. 

Hunk smiled warmly at his. Coran knew that Hunk had requested someone who just had beautiful singing. Perfect for a siren. 

Plus, Hunk was an all around cinnamon roll. 

Coran’s favorite was Lance’s though. 

Lance’s description of what a beautiful person was was rather jumbled so, in Coran’s mind, he had pictured someone who would switch genders so at one moment he would see a woman with beautiful black hair and bright blue eyes and the next moment she would turn into an equally handsome man who maybe had messy black hair and grey-ish eyes. And then he would switch into a girl with short blond hair and dark brown eyes and she would change into a, blond haired man in a never ending cycle. If Coran could project it from his mind onto the table, he would have loved to. But his description of some of the features that Lance could see would have to suffice. 

Though, without being able to communicate what they saw, Coran knew that this was up to Matt, Shiro, and Pidge. Matt and Shiro both saw a white figure who had a fair form but no distinguishing features. They had both described not being attracted to anyone physically but Coran was 75% sure that they were both gay. So he had described the figure before them vaguely but as a male. He wondered if he would get a reaction out of them when the truth of the monster was revealed.

Pidge was the only one with the real power. On the paper he had had them all fill out, Pidge had written “All life is hideous just give up on trying to reach beauty.” So Coran had just decided to let Pidge see the creature as a hideous goblin-esque thing that was sort of made of mist and smoke like it didn’t have a definite form. 

“Okay! Everyone ready?” he asked the group when it seemed like everyone was done looking at their respective cards. 

He heard murmurs of agreement and smiled up at them mischievously.

“Who moves first,” Coran asked. “Anyone want to take a stab at guessing what this creature is?” 

“A creature of beauty?” Allura asked, smiling. 

“A creature of manipulation?” Matt asked. 

“I would like to stab this creature,” Keith added. 

“Keith, I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Lance told Keith.

“Well, I don’t really care,” Keith muttered, “because I want to stab something and technically  it could be hostile so…. You never know.” 

“How could a creature that looks like that be hostile?” Pidge asked sarcastically, staring at their card. 

“I mean, you have to be wary of singing but, yeah, I don’t know how it could be hostile,” Hunk said kindly. 

“I don’t know about yours,” Keith said gesturing across the room, “but mine definitely looks hostile. We should stab it.” 

Coran could do nothing more than stare and watch as the chaos unfolded around him. Pidge kept trying to sneak glances at the cards of people around them but Matt, at least, was a master escape artist after having lived with them for years. 

Hunk was humming quietly to himself and it was a song Coran was 85% sure that he had heard Shay singing at one point in time. 

Allura was smiling around the table, laughing with the group. Keith and Lance were bicking and Shiro and Matt were staying as far away from the conversation as they could. Though… they both seemed interested in what the other’s card said.

“Who wants to make the first move?” Coran asked allowing his words to have duel meaning. 

“I will!” Lance declared. He rolled his dice and leaned onto the table, “Hello there, gorgeous. You look mighty handso---beautiful.” 

Coran smiled, happy that Lance was playing along with the idea he had laid out. 

“I love your long blonde hair— I mean your short black hair is so dashing!” 

“Having fun there, Lance?” Pidge asked, propping their head up with one arm. 

“Why yes,” Lance replied. “I love flirting with this beautiful wo--handsome man.” 

Lance turned to Coran, “Coran. Do I have to.. .can’t I just like… give general compliments? That apply to everyone? This… this is too hard.” 

Before anyone could react Keith snatched Lance’s card out of his hand and got out of his seat to read the card and evade Lance. Keith’s eyes skimmed over the card. “Hmm, interesting,” he said pensively.

“No nono!” Lance cried. “If you read mine, I read yours.” 

Keith continued to walk around the table, his lips moving as he read the words to himself. 

Lance stood up and started following Keith around. “This is not fair,” Lance told him. 

Lance grabbed his forearm, trying to grab back both his own card and Keith’s. Keith just wiggled like a cat and managed to escape his grasp. 

“KEITH!” Lance yelped trying to wrap his arms around the wiggly boy. Lance lunged forward and managed to wrap Keith in his grasp, his head buried in Keith’s hair. 

Coran couldn’t help but grin as he watched the beauty before him unfold. 

Then, before Keith could wiggle out of Lance’s grasp,  Pidge jumped up and grabbed the cards from Keith’s hand. “I knew it! Mothman is Keith’s beautiful person. OH? Though… this one is interesting.” 

Keith threw Lance off of him and lunged for Pidge, knocking them on the ground. Weakly, Pidge reached up and handed the card off to Shiro who accepted it. He nodded, “Yep. This is about what I expected.” 

“The second one, too?” Keith asked incredulously. “The second one makes zero sense, in my opinion,” he turned back to glare at Coran. 

“Hey,” Lance muttered, “You have nothing to be mad about. Coran, you wonderful uncle, Keith is the one who isn’t playing by the rules.” 

“That’s true,” Coran glanced at his watch. “Plus, there isn’t much time left so, Shiro, return the cards and everyone sit down. Then we can get on with some monster butt whooping.” 

Hunk and Lance both burst out laughing. 

“Alright,” Allura said to the group. “I think it’s fair to say that we are dealing with a shapeshifter or a siren or something.” 

“I bet it’s a siren,” Pidge declared. “I mean, I just… don’t see… anything else…” 

“True,” Lance agreed. 

“So how do we kill it?” Keith asked. 

“I think I should attack it,” Pidge said. “I think I’m the only one who isn’t entranced by it.” 

“I’m not,” Matt offered shyly. 

“Me either,” Shiro added slowly. 

“Okay so we have a three way attack force,” PIdge said. “Sweet. We can use an air-attack or something to see if we can dispel the mist around it or something. Except… none of us are mages or magic casters….” 

“I can sneak very well,”Matt reminded them. 

“Yes, Matt,” Pidge replied snidely. “I had no idea that you were a rogue. Come on, we need ideas!” 

“Um… um…” Shiro murmured, “We could… I don’t know, throw Pidge or something? Since they can see the creature? Maybe that would stun it or something?” 

“Yeah!” Matt said a little too excitedly. “Let’s yeet Pidge.” 

“Let’s not yeet Pidge,” Pidge told them. 

“What would a creature of water not want to touch,” Coran supplied, trying to be helpful. 

“Fire!” Matt said excitedly. “Water’s exact opposite is fire!” 

“Okay,” Pidge said slowly, “Do you happen to know where we can procure some fire?” 

“No…” Matt admitted. 

“My fire casting isn’t strong enough,” Keith told them. 

“What about Earth?” Shiro suggested. “If I were a mermaid I wouldn’t particularly want to be dragged onto the shore…” 

“That… actually isn’t a bad idea,” Pidge commented dryly. 

“Let’s try to chase it down and drag it on shore?” Matt asked. 

Coran covered his mouth to hide his smile. Nothing shy of a perfect roll of the dice would let them catch the Siren and, more likely, the siren would catch all of them first. 

Matt rolled his dice. He only got a five. Fantastic. 

“Ummm…” Shiro stopped Coran and Matt from having his character chase after the siren futilly. “What if, instead, we  _ don’t _ do that.” 

“Do you have a better idea?” Pidge asked. 

“Um. Coran?” Shiro asked tentatively, “Are there stalactites on this ceiling?” 

“Yes….” Coran said slowly.  _ What is he thinking? _

“Then I would like to yeet Pidge. At the ceiling.” 

“Yes,” Matt said, immediately agreeing to what Shiro was suggesting. 

“Again, I would not appreciate being yeeted at the ceiling,” Pidge told Shiro. 

“No, wait, hear me out,” Shiro said, leaning closer to Pidge and Matt. He brought them into a huddle so that Coran couldn’t hear what they were saying. He hated when they did that. He liked to know all of the juicy details of their plan. Though, he supposed that was the point of making it a secret in the first place. 

“Alright,” Pidge said leaning away from the huddle. “I consent. Let’s do this.” Shiro’s eyes darted across each member, analyzing them. The rest of the team was sitting in patient amusement watching to see what their “saviors” would do to save them. 

Shiro rolled his dice dramatically and mimed picking Pidge up. He declared that he was throwing them at the ceiling where they used their barbaric abilities to hack off one of the stalactites at the apex of their height. Then, they would both start to fall. The large stalactite would land on top of the Siren and Pidge would land in the water. 

That was the plan anyway. 

Coran watched it all unfold with interest. He had never imagined that they would defeat the siren with the aesthetically added stalactites.” 

But miraculously, it worked in execution. Matt used some potions to give Pidge the ability to temporarily breath underwater so they could resurface and fight without the fear of  drowning. Matt was also the one responsible for trapping the Siren in chains which he was successful in completing. Shiro had used his strength to throw Pidge up to the stalactite where they were able to slice the stalactite down in one swipes. 

“As the stalactite falls,” Coran narrates, “Pidge lands in the water a few feet away while the stalactite hits the siren on top of the head, ceasing the sound of singing and removing the trance on the other team members.” 

Keith lept to action, using a water spell to hold the Siren in place while Matt secured it with ropes and iron chains that he happened to have in his inventory. 

“The Siren is defeated,” Coran announced to a cheering group. Lance swung his arm around Keith’s shoulders saying that they could work together at times though Keith protested that they hadn’t really been working together. Hunk stood up from his chair and picked Pidge up to put them on his back, parading them around the room. Matt and Shiro awkwardly congratulated each other, Shiro patting Matt on the back while Matt ducked his head awkwardly. Allura was smiling warmly at the group and giving them a speech about good teamwork. 

“And just in the nick of time,” Coran continued as everyone took their seats and settled down a little. “We are running over on time, but first! Your prize!” 

“Loot! Loot! Loot! Loot! Loot!” Pidge and Lance chanted rhythmically. 

“Below you, the water level begins to sink,” Coran told them. “The water seems to funnel together like the water in a bathtub that had it’s plug pulled. Soon, nothing more than a few speckled puddles of water remained on the ground below you.” 

“And where the water drained out, you see a spiraling staircase leading downwards into the depths below.” 

“Deeper? Lance whined. “I want to get out of this small area. I like being in the towns and exploring and stuff.” 

“It isn’t too much longer,” Coran assured him. “Or… is it? “

“Coraaa _ aaaan _ ,” Pidge, Allura, Lance, and Matt whined simultaneously. 

“Alright,” Coran conceded, “Just head down the stairwell.” 

The team headed down the stairwell and found themselves in a room with a single treasure chest placed in the center. Matt immediately set to work unlocking the trap and opening the chest. Everyone else spread out to look around the room but they didn’t find anything of interest. 

Once Matt opened the lid to the chest, Coran continued narrating the story. “You open the chest successfully and inside, is  a single, small ring that is filthy with rust and odd colors.” 

“What is it?” Hunk asked softly. 

“That, my children,” Coran announced to the group, “you will have to find out next time because we are out of time!” 

“Are you kidding me?” Shiro groaned. He stood up, walked over to the already overturned table, turned one over and then flipped it again. “Okay,” He told the group. 

Coran announced to them, “Well, I guess you’ll have to find out more next time. Farewell my children!”     
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? (Comments and kudos help my motivation to write, as well).   
> Thank you to anyone and everyone reading this!! <3<3


	4. A Night of Onions and BFs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finds out something interesting about Matt and he and Pidge conspire on how to get their siblings together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. It's been a little while since my last chapter. I was going to put more on this one and make it 10000 words like the others, but I didn't want to just tack on another D&D chapter.   
> So this was actually one of the first parts I ever wrote. Yes I'm still writing new content, but it's more Klance stuff that's coming later. :)
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading. I'm going to try to add one more chapter before S8 and then I'll likely be continuing after S8. 
> 
> And we finally get to the group chat! There are many more to come and they are some of my favorite things to write. :D

Keith~

Keith found it to be so weird to eat in a group without Shiro. 

He had slowly gotten used to eating with the D&D group over the last several days, but without Shiro there, he felt sort of awkward. 

His brother had had to leave to help their chemistry teacher clean up after the lab exploded. Shiro was always so helpful but for Keith, as soon as the bell rang, he was gone. He wasn’t going to clean up other student’s messes. He wondered if Pidge and Lance felt bad about that. The two of them had decided to be lab partners and everything was going  _ fine _ until Pidge dared Lance to add another 100 ml of the acid they were using. If Keith remembered correctly, Lance’s exact words were “I don’t need to be dared to do that!” 

And then things exploded. 

Not horribly but enough to make a fair mess that Shiro had then decided to clean up instead of joining them for lunch. Keith supposed that did make sense though since he was a teacher assistant and wanted to lead by example. Keith actually wasn’t sure how he and Matt always escaped to eat lunch with the rest of them but they did. 

But… without Shiro in the group, Keith couldn’t help feeling like he was alone with no one to talk to. Pidge and Hunk were talking about some weird science shit. Allura and Matt were discussing the next D&D campaign idea they had and Lance was making comments on both conversations. 

Keith had settled for quietly listening until he watched Matt pull an onion out of his lunchbox. 

The others sort of just rolled their eyes and continued their conversations, but Keith was caught on the sight. He watched, amazed, as Matt just started taking bites out of the onion like it was an apple. 

He didn’t tear up. His face didn’t change at all. He just started eating it; he had no reaction whatsoever. 

Keith was suddenly reminded of the time he had woken up in the middle of the night to finish an english paper he had procrastinated on only to hear a weird noise coming from the kitchen. When Keith walked into the kitchen he had found Shiro leaning against the wall, reading a book, and munching on an onion. 

The closer Keith got to him, the more he was sure he was dreaming because  _ how could you eat an onion like an apple and  _ not  _ cry? _ What Sorcery was Shiro using??

It was hilarious when Keith had made Shiro jump, drop his onion, and then stare forlornly at it until he picked it up to eat again, but Keith was still perplexed by Shiro’s hardcore snack. 

When asked, Shiro had said that he could eat onions because he was ‘emotionless and didn’t feel anything inside.’ 

Now, faced with Matt doing the same, Keith said, softly but still loud enough to be heard, “How are you eating like Shiro?” 

Matt turned to look at him. “I have no soul,” he said and then took another large bite of his onion. 

“Seriously, Shiro said basically those exact words!” Keith said with a laugh. 

Matt just shrugged, not bothering to explain anything. 

“God,” Keith chuckled, “you two could be onion bfs!” Keith could just imagine them as Onion best friends going around and eating onions through the whole school. 

Suddenly, Lance was laughing. 

Keith opened his eyes at the sound, (that for some reason made his heart pound a little faster) and looked around the table. Matt had started blushing and staring at his onion like it was a teleportation device that would let him leave the table. Pidge was wiggling their eyebrows at their brother. They probably knew something that Keith didn’t. 

“What?” Keith asked. 

Hunk and Allura both shrugged and went back to their lunches while Pidge and Lance had started smirking and raising their eyebrows suggestively at Matt.

“What’s going on?” Keith tried again. He tried to recall what he had said but he didn’t get the joke. 

Pidge hummed slightly before saying “Nothing,” in that way that totally meant something was up. 

Keith rolled his eyes, knowing better than to question or push them. He would later. Or maybe Lance would crack faster. But… that would mean finding a time to talk to Lance alone and Keith had been avoiding that. 

Just then, the bell rang and Matt quickly finished his onion while everyone else packed up their stuff to head off to their next class. 

Keith noticed that Lance bowed dramatically and waved to everyone ‘bidding them farewell.’ 

Before Keith himself could leave, Pidge grabbed his arm and dragged him off to the side. “Dude,” they said, “that was  _ epic _ . But.. uh… Matt doesn’t really want you, or anyone to know.” 

“Know… about what?” Keith asked, very confused. 

“Y’know,” Pidge said, raising their eyebrows in that taunting way. 

“I don’t— Stop whatever you’re doing with your face,” Keith told them. 

“Come on, Keith,” Pidge laughed. “You completely wrecked my brother. He was so fucking red! It was fucking   _amazing_.” 

“How?” Keith asked. 

“I’ve never seen him blush so hard. Except for maybe that time Shiro grabbed his hand to show him how to make a move in D&D.” 

“Pidge,” Keith said, trying to pull away, “I’ve got to go to class. Either tell me what’s going on or let me go.” 

“Fine,” Pidge sighed. “Your comment about the ‘Onion bfs.’ Like, Onion Boyfriends.” 

“What,” Keith deadpanned. Slowly, the light in his brain came on and he  _ finally _ came to realize what Pidge meant. “Oh… So… I wasn’t just imagining that?” 

“Nope.” 

“Your brother … actually likes my brother?” 

“And give Keith the one million dollar prize! He finally guessed it! After what? Three interactions and a thousand hints?” Pidge said, finally letting Keith’s hand go. 

“I mean… I’ve suspected Shiro might like Matt but I didn’t realize that the feelings were reciprocated.”

“Yep,” Pidge said. “It’s nuts.” 

“Wow…. we have to talk about this later. But I have to go to class.” 

“Okay, yeah, me too.” 

Keith grinned at Pidge as he turned to leave, excited to see how they could collaborate to get their brothers to finally stop being idiots.

~~~...

(tag names)

Keith: BabadookIsAGayIdol

Pidge: FucktheBinary

Lance: OnStandBi: 

Hunk: CinnamonRoll

Shiro: DeadInside

Matt: LordPythagoras

Allura: PrincessValayun

Coran: TheGorgeousMan 

~~~...~

**FucktheBinary has created a chat.**

Chat:  **Onion bfs**

FucktheBinary: yo fuckers I’ve made this to both include keith and for reasons that I will not mention yet

LordPythagoras: Pls no.

OnStandBi: AW YEAH! Lets freakin wreck him!

FucktheBinary: dude. Thats my job. 

FucktheBinary: and not yet. 

CinnamonRoll: What’s this chat about?

FucktheBinary: things.

LordPythagoras: NOHTING

PrincessValayun: Now I am curious, as well. 

DeadInside: What did I miss? 

TheGorgeousMan: im teachig  a class and you guyz should be learnig

TheGorgeousMan: but whtas uo

TheGorgeousMan: i luv gosip 

FucktheBinary: I cant say yet….. 

FucktheBinary: but where the fuck is keith

FucktheBinary: I made this for him. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: How is everyone here? 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: and why tf does eveyone have such weidr names?

OnStandBi: Um? Everyone hates school? 

OnStandBi: And talking with friends is waaay more fun

OnStandBi: and our names are amazing

DeadInside: Keith does have a point. Everyone should get back to class. 

PrincessValayun: You’re here too. 

FucktheBinary: *Allura! Air High five!*

OnStandBi: Yeah! You go glamour princess.

FucktheBinary: and Keith, you’re one to talk about names

BabadookIsAGayIdol: what?

FucktheBinary: why babadook. I thought mothman was your go to.

FucktheBinary: who am I kidding of course he’s your go to. yii fucking love that dude 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: your not wrong but 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Babadook is just as important. 

CinnamonRoll: What is going on?

OnStandBi: idk

PrincessValayun: isn’t the Babadook in that one horror movie?

PrincessValayun: Why is he a gay idol?

DeadInside: Please don’t get him started.

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Too late. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: I’ve already started

TheGorgeousMan: do we want to know

OnStandBi: did Keith leave or is he typing

DeadInside: He’s typing

CinnamonRoll: Great. What did we get into?

FucktheBinary: amazingness

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Google it if you want proof but the Babadook is a gay icon because in that movie he is only half recognized even though he is clearly there. Most of the lgbtq people feel that the Babadook is what it is like to be closeted or what it is like to be gay in a heteronormative society. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: but mothman is still amazing

BabadookIsAGayIdol: i would date the fuck out of him

CinnamonRoll: wow

DeadInside: Yep. There it is. 

DeadInside: And Keith, you can’t date him, he’s not real.

BabadookIsAGayIdol: he is real and so is our love Shiro fuck off

TheGorgeousMan: bravo keith

-OnStandBi has sent a picture-

BabadookIsAGayIdol: See! There he is with the pride flag

OnStandBi: guys. Google it. It’s legit. 

LordPythagoras: that’s amazing

FucktheBinary: ikr

PrincessValayun: i have never seen this movie

PrincessValayun: and now i’m not sure i want to. 

PrincessValayun: that thing is terrifying.

CinnamonRoll: I agree with Allura. That is terrifying. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: believe what you want. 

LordPythagoras: I agree with Keith

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Pidge… that reminds me.

FucktheBinary: wut

BabadookIsAGayIdol: is this chat about that thing

FucktheBinary: maybe…

FucktheBinary: but we are saving the trolling for later. 

CinnamonRoll: I would like to spare everyone from the blackmail. 

OnStandBi: Buddy….

OnStandBi: I love you…

OnStandBi: but no

FucktheBinary:blackmail is an art. 

LordPythagoras: I feel like the blackmail will be directed at me and I really don’t want to. 

DeadInside: I am so confused? 

DeadInside: Can someone explain what is happening? 

FucktheBinary: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

OnStandBi: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

LordPythagoras: Nothing. 

LordPythagoras: Literally nothing is happening. 

PrincessValayun: but that means that something is definitely happening. 

TheGorgeousMan: i j ust sent ym kids t o an activrity 

TheGorgeousMan:somethign i s definitly up

TheGorgeousMan: spil

LordPythagoras: pls don’t

FucktheBinary: on no, brother. I’m saving my trolling for later. 

LordPythagoras: dear god save me. 

CinnamonRoll: honestly, I don’t know if I want to know what’s going on. 

OnStandBi: But… its so amazing

BabadookIsAGayIdol: It really is.

FucktheBinary: Later! Later we shall tell! 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: but pidge… how long has… y’know.

FucktheBinary: Four years

OnStandBi: lit. that’s amazing

FucktheBinary: ikr

DeadInside: I do not know what has been going on. 

DeadInside: Nor do I want to know

OnStandBi:stop your perfect grammer oreo dad. it hu rts my eyes 

DeadInside: Oreo? 

PrincessValayun: Your white hair. 

CinnamonRoll: You do /kind/ of look like an oreo

DeadInside: Really? Which one of you thought of that first? 

OnStandBi: Gah! The good spellng. It hu rts my eyes 

FucktheBinary: oreo dad. We dont need moer school in our texting… at school

CinnamonRoll: Nothing is wrong with good grammar. 

OnStandBi: good grammer is boring

TheGorgeousMan: who neds spellng x

CinnamonRoll: Coran, you are literally a teacher. 

TheGorgeousMan: THat  DOE SN”T STOp mE

TheGorgeousMan: my k ids hav to spel I dont ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

PrincessValayun: so… can we go back to the blackmail. 

LordPythagoras: no. 

PrincessValayun: yes.

LordPythagoras: pls no.

PrincessValayun: Pls yes

OnStandBi: PLS YES

BabadookIsAGayIdol: yes

FucktheBinary: Ik guys. I love blackmail too. But right now we should leave matt squirming with the blackmail hanging over his head. 

FucktheBinary: in fact let’s all leave right now for suspense

OnStandBi: k but we’ll be back, matt

BabadookIsAGayIdol: no..but i have questions. 

CinnamonRoll: School is calling me anyway. 

FucktheBinary: ask in selerate chat or in person keith 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Cool. 

PrincessValayun: yeah.. I should really help the kids out. 

DeadInside: What have you been doing instead? 

PrincessValayun: reading this chat? 

TheGorgeousMan: fine. were rrturning tho jist wait k 

~~~...

FucktheBinary has sent a message to BabadookIsAGayIdol

FucktheBinary: hello fellow geek we dragged to hell

FucktheBinary: how can I be of assistance. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: So… matt’s had a crush on shiro for four years??

FucktheBinary: yep

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Epic

BabadookIsAGayIdol: give me the dirt.

FucktheBinary: okay so i’ll tell you more in person later but basically they worked together in this group and matt was like ‘shit. pidge. I’m gay. I like this dude. What do I do. I don’t want to tell anyone. I mean, like, i know he’s probably not gay… and he’s HOT so he had to be taken’ 

FucktheBinary: it was sad but also kind of funny

BabadookIsAGayIdol: so is matt out? 

FucktheBinary: no. He’s too afraid. 

FucktheBinary: waht about shiro?

BabadookIsAGayIdol: uhm. It doesn’t come up much but he’s gay. He will tell you if you ask but he’s not that open about it. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: shiro’s also demiromantic and ace. 

FucktheBinary: okay. Cool. so they’re both gay. 

FucktheBinary: well, matt’s homoflexible bi

FucktheBinary: but they could be gay together. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: yay

FucktheBinary: you sound so happy. 

BabadookIsAGayIdol: Yay

FucktheBinary: do you know if Shiro has any kind of crush on matt? or in general?

BabadookIsAGayIdol: not sure. If I bring it up he instantly turns it to my love life

FucktheBinary: speaking of which.

FucktheBinary: how’s lance?

BabadookIsAGayIdol: idk. I don’t care.

FucktheBinary: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

BabadookIsAGayIdol: I’m gonna say to you what I say to Shiro

BabadookIsAGayIdol: nope. Bye. 

FucktheBinary: wait. 

FucktheBinary: Keith 

FucktheBinary: come back

FucktheBinary: Keeeiiith. 

~~~...

Keith~

Keith had decided to sit in the big chair in the middle of Shiro and his apartment. He had left the lights off so he could freak Shiro out. 

Sure enough, when Shiro walked in, he jumped when Keith jumped up and poked him from behind. 

“GOD,” Shiro said as he clutched his heart like he was having a heart attack, “KEITH, Don’t DO that!” 

Keith was cackling behind him, holding his stomach with laughter. “But it’s so much fun to do!”

“Keith, what do you want?” Shiro said in his monotone bored voice. 

Keith debated just being blunt and asking him flat out, but he felt like that might draw too much suspicion because of their group chat earlier. Instead Keith asked, “Are you doing anything after school tomorrow?” 

“Teacher homework.” 

“No,” Keith said, “I mean fun stuff. Like  _ procrastinating _ on your ‘teacher homework’ and going out or something.” 

“Oh, on a date?” Shiro asked semi-sarcastically. 

_ Too on point! Too on point! _ Keith’s mind screamed at him. 

“I just mean out somewhere with someone,” Keith managed to say cooly. 

“Yeah, sure,” Shiro said sarcasm dripping from his voice as he began to unpack his teacher bag and pull out his ‘teacher homework.’ “With ‘someone.’” Shiro said putting air quotations around the word ‘someone.’ 

Keith rolled his eyes. “Shiro, you know what I mean. It’s time you get a life that  _ won’t stress you out _ .” 

“I’m not stressed.” 

“I don’t think I’ve heard a bigger lie in my entire life.” 

“Ha ha,” Shiro said in a monotone voice. 

“Is there anyone you _ would  _ go out with?” Keith inquired, trying to keep the mood light. 

“What about you and La—”

“We are  _ not  _ going there,” Keith asserted. “We are talking about you. So, do you have anyone dying for your attention. You could even do double dates with either Hunk and Shay or Allura and Lotor.”

“Ugh. Them,” Shiro groaned. He sat down on the chair and began rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I really hate that guy Lotor.”

“I understand,” Keith commented. “The name itself sounds like a disease.” 

Shrio chuckled. “Yes, it does. I think he  _ is  _ a disease for Allura, as well.” 

“Yeah, I think so too,” Keith said. “And I just met them two weeks ago.” 

“I think even if you don’t know them you can just  _ tell _ they are a bad couple,” Shiro groaned. 

“True, but it’s just Lotor’s fault. We need to get her to see that, but that’s a problem for another time. I’m not ready to deal with that without the rest of the group’s support. I mean, everyone will agree with us but I still want their help in the matter.” 

“Okay. Me too,” Shiro agreed. 

“Right now… we are talking about you.” Keith grinned as Shiro groaned. 

“Keith, please no.” 

“I just think it would be good for you to get out and start talking to and seeing people. You are too stressed. You need a life.” 

“I have D&D.” 

“That doesn’t count.” 

“Then I’m going to do like you would do and just leave now.” 

Shiro stood to leave. “So… do you like anyone?” Keith called. 

“We are not talking about this.” 

“You’re still gay though, right?” 

Shiro turned to stare at Keith. “You know that doesn’t just… change, right?” 

Keith grinned and said, “Why of course it does! Everyone just chooses to be gay like a… like a lightswitch turning on.” 

Shrio just shook his head. “You are insufferable.” 

“So are you!” Keith cried. “You won’t admit that you want a relationship.”

“And you won’t admit that you like Lance,” Shiro countered, leaning against the doorway to his room. 

“Touche. But you just admitted to somewhat wanting a relationship,” Keith said trying to quell his heartbeat at Lance’s name in the context of Keith liking him.

“I think D&D is honestly good enough for me,” Shiro said. 

Keith rolled his eyes. 

“Fine,” Shiro said. “Once you admit to liking Lance and you actually start to flirt with him instead of doing whatever it is that you to do,  _ then _ I will think about a relationship.” 

Keith shrugged. “I guess you’ll die alone then. Such a shame. You’re so handsome I figured  _ someone _ would take you but I guess not if you won’t take the effort yourself.”

“Keith,” Shiro moaned. 

“Fine fine,” Keith huffed. “Go do your teacher homework.”

“You should do your homework, too,” Shiro said as he opened the door to his room, entered and closed the door. 

~~~...

The next day, Keith had managed to gather Pidge and Lance together in the hallway just before lunch. He had had a half-formed idea in his head all day and he wanted to ask them what they thought about it. 

“Why did you bring us here?” Lance asked. 

“Did you want my help being a chaperone for you both?” Pidge asked. 

“First of all,” Keith said, turning towards Pidge with a glare, “No. Second, this is about Matt and Shiro.” 

Both Pidge and Lance make open mouthed ‘Oh’ faces and immediately stopped to listen to him. 

“We have to get them together,” Keith said. “Everyone in agreement on that?” 

They both nodded. 

“Okay. So, I know they have a weird thing in common. They both love eating plain onions. Like soulless, emotionless weirdos. So I want to make them bond over onions.”  

Pidge nodded sagely. “Yes, they need to figure out how much they love each oth— er— I mean how much they love eating onions together.” 

“Could I make it seem like a romantic dinner?” Lance said. 

“Sure, why not,” Keith agreed. “Why don’t we let Lance do the aesthetic planning and I will get Shiro to join the Onion-date.” 

“Can we hold it at Matt’s and my place?” Pidge asked. “Then Matt can’t run from us. He would be stuck.” 

“That sounds amazing,” Keith said. “I’ll get Shiro to go over there. Pidge, you get Matt to stay there. And Lance will plan the dinner.” 

“Now, let’s figure out the details,” Lance said with a smile. 

 

Matt~

To say that Matt was nervous was an understatement. 

He hated his younger sibling telling him that he had to stay home, while they left, on the threat that they would kill him if he didn’t stay, and then Pidge didn’t even tell him why. Oh, and they had decided to lock one of the rooms with a key and Matt couldn’t figure out what was inside. 

He was worried a bomb was about to go off or something. He kept nervously checking his phone and computer to see if Pidge had anything to say to him about why he had to stay home. 

His heart rate shot up as soon as the doorbell chimed through the house. Shakily, Matt stood up and walked over through the door. He looked out the small peephole in the door but he couldn’t tell who was there. He took a deep breath and then opened the door…

… to find Shiro. 

Shiro of all people. 

Why did it have to be Shiro?

Matt’s heart shot up into his throat and he almost choked. “S-Shiro?” he stuttered. 

“Um,” Shiro said, very intelligently, “Hi, Matt.” 

Matt noticed that Shiro was twisting his fingers together as though he was nervous. He was wearing a nice black shirt with a grey vest over it and a nice pair of slacks. Pidge hadn’t told Matt to dress up. He looked down at his own sweatpants and t-shirt and immediately felt awful. Why did Shiro have to look so good in that vest? 

“Um. Hi,” Matt said. “I wasn’t expecting anyone. Give me two minutes.” 

Matt closed the door and ran halfway across the room before realizing that he hadn’t let Shiro in.  _ Shit _ . He was being an  _ idiot _ . He ran back and opened the door, out of breath. “Hi, please come in.” 

Shiro looked slightly confused but he stepped inside and Matt closed the door. 

Matt turned around and  _ instantly _ noticed that he had almost no lights on in the entry room. He saw the piles of mail and the pile of discarded shoes. He saw the wrapper of the candy bar he had eaten earlier laying on the floor along with numerous other things of either trash or clutter. 

The next time Matt saw Pidge, he would have to remember to kick their ass for not telling him about this. 

“I’m so, so, so”  _ too many ‘ _ so’ _ s,  _ “sorry for the mess,” Matt said. 

“It’s fine,” Shiro shrugged, standing awkwardly beside Matt in the entryway. 

Matt rushed over and flicked on the lights, blinding Shiro, and then immediately started apologizing. 

“It’s fine,” Shiro assured him. 

“I’m going to… uh… I’ll be right back,” Matt turned to leave. “Oh, and make yourself at home. Please. I’ll be… right back.” Matt took off refusing to look at Shiro. He could feel a warm blush creeping onto his cheeks. 

_ God, _ he knew he was being such an idiot but he could barely think. Shiro just looked  _ so awesome _ . Like always. But now they were  _ alone _ in Matt’s house. 

And Pidge hadn’t warned him so there was trash everywhere and Matt was in sweatpants. Things were going just  _ perfectly _ . 

He got to his room, panicky and out of breath but he rushed to find his nicer cloths. The only thing he found was a full suit and Shiro wasn’t dressed  _ that  _ nicely. Matt didn’t want to overdo it. 

_ Finally, _ he settled on a green polo shirt with a black bowtie and some nicer khaki pants. Just before he left his room, Matt grabbed a black belt to tie the outfit together. 

He walked out to find Shiro sitting on the edge of the couch with his hands clasped together as he waited for Matt. 

Matt wondered how long he had taken to get dressed. He hoped it hadn’t been long. 

“Wow,” Shiro said. “You look nice.” His face paled. “I mean, you didn’t look bad before… you looked… comfortable.” 

Matt chuckled nervously wanting to change the topic. “Is there a reason you came by?” Matt started to worry that he had forgotten something. 

“Well…” Shiro said nervously, “Keith told me to come here. He gave me this key and said you would know what to do with it…” 

It was Matt’s turn to pale. 

_ God, Pidge. What did you plan?  _

“Yeah,” Matt sighed, “I know what to do with the key.” 

He held out his hand and Shiro placed it in his palm. As his fingers touched Matt’s palm, Matt couldn’t help feeling that familiar but annoying electric shock that jolted through his body. 

Matt hesitated for a second too long before pulling back and marching off towards the locked door. He half hoped Shiro wouldn’t follow him because he was afraid of whatever horrors lay beyond the door, but Shiro got up and marched behind him towards the locked door. 

Matt stuck the key into the old-fashioned lock and twisted it until he heard the click. For some reason his fingers were shaky and his palms felt sweaty. 

_ Calm down _ , he told himself. Shiro was his  _ friend _ . They were just two  _ friends _ hanging out. In nicer cloths. Alone. And… and Matt couldn’t stop thinking about how good Shiro looked and how much he would love to even just get close to him. 

Matt cracked the door open and looked inside. The room was dimly lit but there were candles that illuminated a  _ very _ small two person table with a basket in the middle. Matt immediately thought of a romantic dinner and slammed the door shut. 

_ Nope.  _ He was  _ not  _ going in there with Shiro. Not in his own house. Not when  _ clearly _ Pidge had set this up. 

“What is it?” Shiro asked startling Matt into jumping a little. 

“Nothing,” Matt said a little too quickly. 

Shiro smiled at him and then grabbed onto Matt’s hand which was still clutching the door handle and he turned the knob until the door opened. Matt bit his lip and he watched Shiro’s face. They were  _ so close  _ together. 

Shiro made little to no reaction. Maybe by some miracle he didn’t see Pidge’s intentions. 

Shiro walked over towards the basket and then opened it and pulled out a nearly spherical, white object. Shiro started laughing joyously at the object. Curiosity got to Matt and he started to walk over to Shiro. As he started walking, he noticed that there was something underneath his shoes on the ground. 

_ Oh my god are those rose petals? _ Matt thought in a panic. 

He rushed over towards Shrio and recognized what was in his hand. 

An onion.

He was holding a freaking onion. 

He was going to  _ kill  _ Pidge and Keith.

“Did Keith do this?”  Shiro asked. 

“I assumed Pidge had,” Matt said. “They know that I like eating raw onions.” 

“Really?” Shiro asked, “So do I?” 

“Huh,” was all Matt could say. He knew for certain that their siblings had been working together. He wished he had never brought an onion to lunch. It was a bad mistake. 

“So…” Shiro said placing the onion next to the basket. He pulled out three more onions and placed them next to the first.  _ Really, Pidge? Four Onions? _ Then he pulled out two cling-wrapped wrapped plates of spaghetti. He then pulled out a small pourable container of sauce. 

“There was a hot plate at the bottom so the spaghetti would remain warm,” Shrio told Matt. 

“I  _ swear _ I didn’t set this up,” Matt said. 

Shiro laughed, “No I wouldn’t have expected you to set this up. But, food is food.” 

Shiro gestured to the chairs and took a seat himself. Matt sat across from him. If Matt pushed his chair in too closely, his knees would knock into Shiro’s. God, this was so weird. Matt hated how awkward he was. He hated how he couldn’t act normal around Shiro. 

He grabbed one of the plates of spaghetti and began to unwrap it while Shiro did the same. Matt grabbed the sauce first and covered the Spaghetti then handed it to Shiro. At least Pidge hadn’t given them only one plate of spaghetti in hopes of a  Lady and the Tramp moment. 

They ate in silence. Matt almost wished that Pidge had added some romantic music just so that he could focus on  _ anything.  _ The room was too dark for him to see the decor on the wall so the only things he could look at was his plate of spaghetti, the onions, the candles, and… Shiro.

And sadly, his eyes kept being drawn to the last one. He couldn’t help but stare at the scar across Shiro’s nose that somehow made him even more handsome. He would always look at Shiro’s white bangs and his eyes would trace every strand of hair. His metal prosthetic arm was concealed except for the hand that Matt, really wanted to touch and hold. His eyes were always so kind despite their stormy color. Shiro was even sitting up perfectly like he was trained with perfect posture. It didn’t feel awkward for him, it just made Matt want to be better. 

“So…” Shiro said after he was mostly done with his spaghetti. “Should we indulge our siblings and eat onions?” 

Matt chuckled. “A part of me doesn’t want to but the other part of me thinks that those onions look really good.” 

Matt reached out and grabbed one, Shiro took one as well. 

“Well, cheers! I guess...” Matt said awkwardly raising his onion towards Shiro. Shiro tapped his onion with Matt’s and then took a large bite at the same time Matt did. 

“So… when did you start eating raw onions?” Matt tried to ask conversationally. 

“Um, I don’t really remember,” Shiro answered. 

More silence.  _ God, this is so awkward, _ Matt thought. 

“I think I was eleven when I started eating onions,” Matt said offhandedly. 

“I don’t remember how old I was but I was dared to try it and I decided that: you know what, I wasn’t going to cry. Honestly I thought it wasn’t going to taste that good, but then… it actually did taste that good,” Shiro said as he took another large bite. “The onion proves how dead I am inside.” 

Matt laughed, “The onion proves how soulless I am. Who dared you to eat it?” 

“Keith,” Shiro said. “Who else?” 

“True,” Matt grinned.

“Why did you start eating onions?” Shiro inquired. 

“I… I guess that I saw… someone… eating it and I was like ‘I wonder how that tastes. It can’t be to bad if someone else is doing it,’ you know.” 

Matt had a vague memory of seeing Shiro eating an onion and wanting to try it. But he would  _ never  _ tell Shiro that. 

Their conversation died off as they finished their onions. Matt checked his phone in his pocket and saw that only about twenty-five minutes had passed since Shiro had first arrived.  _ Great. How long do I have to endure this? _

“Keith saw me once eating an onion and I swear it messed him up for days.” 

“Pidge freaked when they found me eating them too. They kept asking me to eat them like it was a party trick. ‘Look here! My brother doesn’t cry at eating an onion!’ It was so weird.” 

Shiro laughed good naturedly. “That’s amazing. Keith just kept making jokes about me being dead and empty for the following couple of weeks.” 

They were quiet again. It wasn’t as awkward as before but Matt still kind of wanted to leave. He loved Shiro’s company. He really did. But he hadn’t been expecting this kind of… implication from his friends. 

“So… why were we brought here to eat onions?” Shiro asked. “Not that I mind,” Shiro added quickly. “I enjoy talking to you and I was fed pasta. But still…” 

“Well…” Matt said, that fire boiling in his stomach again. He remembered Keith’s comment about them being Onion Bfs and then the group chat.  _ What would Shiro think if he had been there in that moment?  _ “I was eating an onion at school and Keith saw and started commenting about it. I suppose they wanted to show us that we both like onions. He wanted us to… bond or something.” 

Matt didn’t dare start thinking about how close he was to Shiro and yet how he wanted to be so much closer. It was crazy. He knew that. To Shiro, they were probably just hanging out like good friends. But to Matt… he had an annoying fire in his chest. He knew he didn’t want to get closer to Shiro. It was crazy. And he hated that he couldn’t stop his thoughts from going there. 

Matt wanted that fire to extinguish. 

But then he looked back up at Shiro. Shiro who was laughing like Matt had just told the greatest joke. Shiro who looked wonderful with his head thrown back with glee. Shiro who’s eyes held so much joy that Matt couldn’t help but smile when he looked at him.

Matt felt the fire flare in his chest. He noticed that his knee was touching Shiro’s. He felt hot and overwhelmed. 

It was awful. 

He hated it. 

But…  he wanted to get closer to Shiro too. 

Matt hated himself. 

He wanted to tear out his insides just so he could stop feeling this  _ fire. _

So he could stop feeling anything. 

It wasn’t worth it. 

This fire hurt. 

They are  _ friends. _

He felt suffocated.

Shiro doesn’t, and would never like him that way. 

He had to leave. 

He had to get away. 

Matt stood up before he could even think about it. 

The chair was behind him and his hands were on the table. 

His lips were moving of their own volition. He couldn’t stop speaking.

“Shiro, I’m sorry but I just forgot that I have an essay due tomorrow.” 

He hated his voice. 

It was too rough. It was too cold. 

But Shiro merely nodded. 

Did his eyes look sad?

Had Matt hurt Shiro? 

But then Shiro looked up at him and he was smiling again. 

“Of course,” he said warmly. “I understand.” 

_ No _ , Matt thought,  _ you don’t _ . 

Shiro placed his hand on Matt’s shoulder and smiled at him. Electricity jolted through Matt’s body and he jerked away. Then he felt bad about it. Without Shiro’s touch, Matt felt emptier than before. 

“We’ll have to plan a revenge on our siblings sometime,” Shiro said. 

Matt couldn’t look at him but his voice was still warm and kind. 

“Goodbye, Matt.” 

Matt nodded, but he couldn’t say anything. 

“I’ll text you later about the revenge,” Shiro added as he walked past Matt. Matt nodded once and turned to watch him as he walked out and closed the door. 

As soon as the door closed with a soft click, Matt fell back onto the chair. 

_ What have I done? _

Matt had chased Shiro away. 

Matt had told him to leave. 

Just after they were getting along. 

Matt had always told himself that he could never date Shiro… but he had hoped that he could be friends with him. He had wanted to preserve their friendship. He had wanted to always be close…  

And now he had probably wrecked his friendship with Shiro, too. 

Instead of feeling a fire inside of him, he felt like there was a black hole in his chest pulling everything into a nothingness he wanted so desperately to fall into. 

Matt felt a buzz on his phone.

 

Pidge: How’s the date going? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Pidge: I mean Onion bonding hangout. 

Pidge: Nah, you know I mean date.

 

Matt didn’t respond. He didn’t want to talk to anyone, least of all his obnoxious sibling who set up the event that Matt had ruined, ergo ruining his friendship with his  _ stupid _ crush, Shiro. 

He silenced his phone and set it on the table. Slowly, he got up, extinguished the candles, and left the room. 

He had tried so many times to convince himself that he merely admired Shiro. He had tried to control his feelings into something of friendship and caring. 

But he couldn’t control them. His feelings just  _ had _ to manifest into more. Into a crush. A stupid goddam crush. 

Matt threw the door to his room open and pulled off his bow tie and belt. 

_ Pull yourself together Matt, _ he told himself. 

They were friends. 

_ We are friends and friends are busy all of the time.  _

But friends don’t usually tell each other to leave awkwardly. And friends don’t usually feel a fire in their chest at seeing each other. Friends don’t wish to hold other friend’s hands down the hallways at school despite how much their brains yell at them about how  _ weird and wrong  _ that would be. 

_ We are friends.  _ Friendship.  _ Friendship _ .  _ Friendship is what matters. _

Why was he such a goddamn idiot? Why couldn’t he just turn his feelings off without feeling like an empty pile of nothingness. Why couldn’t he just blow out that stupid fire and go back to being normal. Just make it be over with. 

Why… why did he have to feel anything?

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> What did you think? 
> 
> I would love to hear your thoughts in a comment. Even just leaving Kudos is nice!  
> Thank you so much for reading and I'll try to update soon! 
> 
> Also, please don't take the art or repost it somewhere. Idk, just give me credit if you do. I am the writer and artist for this fic though I have some friends helping me with ideas, flow, editing etc.  
> Thank you again!


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